Copyright - Implications for Educators

Over the past few weeks, I have had several conversations with our Library Media Specialist (LMS), as well as my grade level partners, regarding our concerns about Copyright Law and its impact on our teaching. First, the language arts curriculum writing teams have put together units of study that contain re-typed copies of entire texts by authors such as Patricia Polacco, Cynthia Rylant, and Sandra Cisneros to name just a few. These texts are reused year after year to teach specific reading and writing strategies. Many teachers and administrators are under the impression that if you re-type a text instead of photocopying it, Copyright Law does not apply (even though our LMS tells them otherwise). As a matter of fact, a few years ago she attended a workshop that was attended by several children's authors, including Patricia Polacco. Ms. Polacco informed the attendees that she rarely gives permission to reproduce her work.

Budget constraints and ever changing curriculums prohibit many districts from purchasing expensive classroom sets of these anchor texts. However, good teachers know that it is much more effective for every learner to have a copy of the text for discussion and to use as a reference to gather supporting details. We use the copies because we know they are effective tools for learning. Yet, when we provide students with these copyrighted texts, we are inadvertently telling them that it is okay to use a text in this way.

The Fair Use guidelines are posted next to the photocopier, our LMS reviews the guidelines with teachers every year, reads aloud the letter from Disney prohibiting the use of their videos for entertainment purposes, and she frowns when she notices teachers making copies of The Keeping Quilt. We know that it is not fair to copy these texts, but we also know that by using these texts, our students have become better readers and writers. Making the choice between unfair and fair use is difficult for teachers, and unfortunately, I believe that the practice will continue until Patricia Polacco finds out what we are doing.