I primarily spent this week contemplating the different areas of needs assessment that I want to address in my Power Point presentation. As of now, I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to address so now I just have to put my rough draft onto the slides. I expect this to be a fairly easy task because throughout the semester, I’ve been fiddling around with Power Point and trying to get a better feel for working with backgrounds and slides. The only area that I think my Power Point presentation will be lacking is in the area of multimedia use. My presentation is a very straightforward display of facts and examples of different ways to use needs assessment to plan for therapy. I couldn’t really find any pictures, or sound clips that I felt were relevant to my particular topic, therefore, I didn’t include any of these. I hope it’s not required that we do so in the presentations, and I also hope that it doesn’t make my Power Point too boring. I have decided that the audience for my presentation will be a group of SLP’s who are relatively inexperienced in working with ESL clients. This week, I also realized that some of my essential questions have changed even from my most recent revision of them. If the overall presentation is going to be evaluated on how well I specifically address the essential questions, then I am presented with a new task. It is to re-revise my essential questions. Ahh—sometimes I feel like this project is a never ending revision. I guess that is a good thing, although it’s time consuming. One essential question that has changed is the one concerning the use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in needs assessment of ESL clients. I don’t really want to expand to greatly upon this now because, through my research, I have found that it isn’t specifically used in the SLP’s therapy planning process. I do feel it’s important that a clinician consider the ESL client’s basic human needs, yet, I don’t think that this is a crucial part of the needs assessment process. Actually, now that I think about it, many of the needs assessment plans incorporate the basic principles found in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs anyway…just in a more indirect way. For instance, one of the basic needs Maslow discusses is acceptance and many of the other needs assessment procedures also question and probe the ESL client about this very issue. This just demonstrates that needs assessment can assume a variety of different forms and that some forms may overlap with others. Another question that came to my mind this week is, “What is the actual definition of needs assessment?” Of course, I know what it is because I’ve been researching it for so long now, but do my readers really know what this is? After contemplating that, I decided that somewhere in my work I need to formulate an actual definition. This will help ensure that readers’ really understand the topic that they’re reading about. I also want to make sure that my readers understand that needs assessment isn’t just something that occurs prior therapy, but that it is a continual process that takes places throughout the therapy. I realized that continual needs assessment during therapy is a way for the SLP to adapt the original therapy plan, select different materials, therapy objectives, and ways to approach teaching the client. This would, in turn, allow the curriculum of therapy to be flexible and responsive to the ESL client’s concerns, rather than following a distinct, linear plan. I really didn’t realize this before now because I thought that needs assessment of ESL clients was a way to provide the clinician with specific information about exactly what to address in therapy. So, needless to say a few changes in my thinking occurred this week. Just a thought…I know we’re suppose to address objectives, content, processes, changes in thinking, and then questions in each journal entry. I apologize for these areas being presented rather haphazardly, but my free flowing thoughts don’t really take that kind of organization into account! Anyway, in regards to processes used this week, I have turned my ideas for my Power Point into a written rough draft. This has been a good way for me to see what the various slides will look like on paper before transferring that information on the computer. One question I have regarding this area is if sources need to be cited throughout the Power Point and on a reference page at the end of a slide show or if the references used for this genre can just be included in the references in my project prospectus? I have viewed some of the presentations from the summer class and some presentations cite sources, while others do not. I’d say that I will most likely include the sources when I construct my presentation because it can’t really hurt anything. Other processes used this week were reviewing and offering suggestions to my fellow group members about their fifth genres. I think that my group is doing extremely well with their genres and as of right now, all of their genres seem to flow together and mesh nicely with one another. It’s neat to be able to watch the progress of others’ work for this class. I like the reciprocal relationship that I have with members of my group because I feel like my input positively influences their work, while at the same time, their input and ideas help to make my work stronger. Of course, the whole class helps each other during the MOO meetings, but I think the groups are really the ideal environment for others to share ideas, address questions and concerns, and support each other throughout this course. Actually, that’s about it for this week. I’m excited to get started next week on my unifying genre, which I believe will be in the form of a narrative story, written either by the ESL client or his clinician. The only question I’m pondering now is which person’s voice would be better to write my unifying genre in. I’ll probably just test out a few ideas written from each perspective and see which one most adequately incorporates all of my genres. I have a feeling that the final piece will be written in the voice of the clinician, but who knows at this point. Until next time…

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” --Pearl S. Buck

I had an extremely stressful week followed by a long and busy weekend, therefore, I am not at all in the mood to write this journal entry today. I’ll try to give it my best shot anyway, and just hope that the negative attitude I have been plagued with lately doesn’t bleed too heavily into my writing and thoughts about this class. Sometimes I hate writing sooo much, but for some reason, it never ceases to be something I am passionate about (not this type of writing, though). I dislike being forced to write things for school all the time. Although it improves my skills and helps me to reflect on my work, I am just selfish about my writing because I like to do it when I want, where I want, and by my own rules (there’s my stubborn, Taurus side shining through yet again). So really, there are two main types of writing I engage in…the writing I am required to do for school, and the writing that I do in my own spare time for a hobby. Although I try my best to do well on my writing assignments for school, those assignments are most definitely not where my most thought-out, well-constructed, and meaningful work can be found. These two very different writing environments constitute the primary foundation for the love/hate relationship I am currently experiencing with writing. Lately, I can’t find any middle ground because I don’t have the time to write as a hobby because of the never-ending writing assignments for school. Ok, on to the topics REALLY meant to be discussed.

In regards to the content presented this week, the assignments mimicked those of the previous week. I peer-reviewed my group’s fourth genres at various times throughout the week and read over others’ responses to my own work. It makes me feel good to offer suggestions to my peers that could potentially help make their work stronger. I like the fact that others are reading and reviewing my work, as well. When other peers read my work, it makes me feel like I’m not just completing this time consuming and involved project for merely one person (the teacher). Of course, millions of people have online access to this ongoing project, but other students in this class are the ones who truly understand the work and planning that goes into the genres. So, what I’m saying is that it’s encouraging to receive feedback about my MRP from my peers. I also appreciate the ongoing thoroughness of my group members’ peer reviews. I can tell that they take this assignment seriously by the way they always go into detail about at least one of the sections of the peer review. One thing that I was a little confused about this week was if a group member completed three (or more) parts to a particular genre, do I, as a peer reviewer have to peer review all of them? I assume that the answer is yes, but this really made the peer reviews a much more involved process than I had originally thought. Regardless of the time, I was still glad to help.

Moreover, I enjoyed the MOO meeting this week. Since we hadn’t met online for a couple weeks, it was the perfect time to reconvene and share our ideas and progress. It seems that now everyone has at least a rough idea of how their MRP will be unified. I am going to do a Power Point presentation as a unifying genre, I believe. Presently, I am unsure precisely how I will incorporate all of the genres into this presentation, but I know that it can be done. It will just take a little more time to develop a creative idea about this unifier. Although I thought about how certain genres can connect in the unifier, I am planning on expanding those connections even further next week (hey—I’ll get there, it just takes me time!). I want the unifying genre to be in the voice of the clinician. I am gravitating toward the idea of the clinician presenting a “case study” about assessing the needs of one ESL client. The Power Point presentation may be given at a conference to other SLP’s who may be unaccustomed to working with ESL clients, or to aspiring SLP’s who may be unfamiliar with the notion that working with ESL clients can fall within a SLP’s domain. Actually, I have been contemplating (just as Heather has) completing an additional genre for my MRP. If in fact, I could not get my Power Point presentation to adequately unify all of my genres, I will then have to further consider this option. A brainstorm about an extra genre at this point is having the clinician write a short narrative about her experiences with this particular ESL client, while incorporating the various genre links throughout her writing. I know that it is vague to not say “how” the links will be incorporated in her writing, but the simple fact remains that I don’t know yet. I probably won’t know until I start writing her story. Therefore, while I could plan out the incorporation of genres extensively, I will most likely change all of those ideas anyway. I know it’s good to have a concrete plan, but that doesn’t always work for me. It’s usually in the “doing” that my plans are created and formed (as opposed to them stemming from my original ideas, then later being perfected). Hope that makes sense.

In regards to my fifth genre, I am still working on it at the present time. I came up with the idea to do an interview between the client and the clinician. The primary purpose of this interview would be to demonstrate one part/example of the needs assessment process. For instance, the clinician could present one specific questionnaire (or incorporate relevant parts from a few different questionnaires) to the client and have him verbally respond. I will then present the interaction between the client and the clinician in the form of a written interview. I’m unsure if this would actually be considered a real interview. However, I just looked up the word, “interview,” and Merriam-Webster says that it is, “a formal consultation usually to evaluate qualifications,” or, “a meeting at which information is obtained from a person.” Clearly, when an SLP assesses the needs of any client, information about the client is obtained. I guess I just answered my own question then…or at least if I don’t have the right answer, I have information to support why I think that needs assessment is a form of interview. Completing a genre like this would give the audience some idea of how one part of a needs assessment could flow. I can always revise it if, in fact, it did not meet the criteria for being a legitimate genre. I have no shame in revising anything, anymore. That is one huge change in my thinking that has recently occurred. At this point, I am curious how many times I will have to revise my MRP genres before I turn in my final project? I also wonder if I should be gradually doing this along the way? Probably. I tend to ask questions that I already know the answers to. One other question I wonder is just how many people in our class will be able to find a definite answer to their essential question? I know already that my answer is not a definite one, but I also know that it isn’t required to be. I can support my reasoning as to why I feel that needs assessment in ESL clients can greatly contribute to a SLP’s planning of an effective therapy plan. I also wonder if there is such a thing as a definitive answer to an essential question. I think this would depend on the nature of the question. Still yet, I doubt that any essential question would have only one answer. Maybe, though. Right now, I’m trying to think about a question that may only have one answer, but I can’t come up with any at the moment. Maybe I can later if I think more extensively about it. Anyway, I just feel glad that I’ve worked hard on the genres up to this point. Since, in my opinion, their content is strong, when I complete a final unifying genre, the whole project will become cohesive and strong. At least that is my hope. I plan to continue to work hard on the genres in the upcoming weeks, so that this hope can become a reality. Then, I can leave this class without asking a million, “What-if,” questions about the quality of my project.

BTW, I’ve heard many people who say that they can’t believe it’s the 9th week already or that school has flown by this semester. Everyone thinks differently, but I absolutely disagree. On the contrary, I feel that every excruciating moment of this semester has lasted an eternity. I know this semester has just over a month remaining, but I still cannot envision the, “light at the end of the tunnel,” with this class or any of my classes. I’m frustrated, exhausted, and struggling desperately not to loose confidence in my ability to be a successful student. I always say, “hopefully next week will be better,” and this is rarely ever the case. Yes, I’m learning a lot of tremendously valuable information this semester, but at the same time, I’m sacrificing MY LIFE! Where weekends were once a relaxing haven, they now are merely extensions of the weekdays…tense, hectic, and full of endless assignments, projects, papers, test preparation (which, judging from my performance on recent tests, is apparently an area where I’m greatly lacking) and planning for the upcoming week. I guess I am bothered by the fact that our assignments in here are due on Sundays. While it is always ideal that the work be completed for this class prior to the Sunday night deadline, at times, this is difficult or even impossible (at least for me). I think that having the Sunday deadline is helpful, but it also tempts me to not worry about finishing every assignment during the week (a very bad thing). Bottom line…I am not as thankful for a busy life as I was previously in this semester (I wrote about this topic in an earlier journal entry). Sorry if some of my thoughts are irrelevant to the purpose of this journal, but I really don’t think they are. Here’s why…outside stressors such as work for other classes, personal issues, etc. all effect on my performance in this class because of the considerable amount of time required for these additional projects/engagements. I only wish I had taken this class at an earlier time! Even though my thinking/writing skills wouldn’t have been as sharp as they are now, my overall performance in the class and on the MRP would have probably been better because more time could have been allotted to thinking about, planning, and revising my MRP. Again, I apologize for going off in this entry, but I believe that the week’s content, processes, and new changes in my thinking have all been adequately addressed. The quote I chose for this week describes me quite well and definitely pertains to the way I write for journals, prompts, genres, and reflections. Although great thought and planning go in to what I will write about, I often fail to see the “big picture” until all of my writing has been completed and organized in a logical manner. My hope is that I will be able to clearly recognize and understand what I’ve done with my MRP after all of my work for it has been completed. Until next time...

“Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled.” -- Anne Lamott

My goals and objectives for the past week haven’t changed immensely from those of the previous weeks. I’m still just trying to envision how at the end of the semester my project will fit cohesively together. This has become a very important goal for me and it is something that I often have doubts about. I now realize that while it is up to me to mesh the various genres together into one (genre 7) at the conclusion of this project, it will probably be much easier once all of the genres are complete. When I was thinking about the process of pulling all genres together at the end, it reminded me of putting together a difficult puzzle. (I know people always compare things to puzzles and pieces, but oh well, here’s my comparison.) It usually takes me a lot of work to find which puzzle piece fits with others and where the groups of pieces fit together in relation to the whole puzzle picture. This is representative of the struggle I’ve been experiencing in finding relevant genres for my project. For instance, before my topic shift, I wanted to do a sample lesson plan, but now that genre is not relevant to my essential question, so I explored other options (like the interview and the email exchange). Also, a puzzle becomes more difficult when I can’t look at the final picture that the pieces create. While I have been provided with many MRP examples from the CD. 315 summer class, none of them will look exactly like my finished product. Those examples are like looking at the pictures for different puzzles, but never finding a picture of the one I’m constructing. Those examples are helpful in showing how various MRP’s could be constructed, but they don’t necessarily provide a method that is best for me. That’s one thing I like about the MRP…it’s very individual. One can start with their own ideas and creatively integrate their research findings (while still following the guidelines), in order to arrive at a truly unique piece of work. That’s one thing that I admire about the work of the summer class…everyone’s project was presented in such a unique format. In actuality, I have no idea what the final product of my MRP will look like or how the genres will ultimately unite. I guess it will just take a lot of guesswork and playing around with different options for me to arrive at a point where my work is cohesive. My main point (I tend to get off track sometimes!): It is always easier to see what a puzzle picture is once all of the pieces are in place (that’s just common sense). So, I’m not going to worry too heavily about the overall picture at this point during work on my MRP, because the overall cohesiveness should be apparent, just as a puzzle picture is once all pieces are intact, when all of the genres are completed.

More about the MRP…I guess I had the same concern as Allison did that my genres weren’t directly reflecting my research findings. Then, I figured out that really they were. Here’s why. The genres I have completed to date have been the journal entries, webliography, and poem. I am currently working on completing my fourth genre which is an email exchange between the SLP and the client’s wife. All of these genres, in some way, include either the client, client’s family member, or clinician’s personal feelings toward my topic. These particular feelings and beliefs expressed by these MRP “characters” have all been derived from the research that I’ve conducted. For instance, while creating my fourth genre, the email exchange, I had to take into consideration the feelings and concerns of a family member of a person trying to learn to adequately communicate and understand a new language—English. Since I could not find direct research on this subject, I had to adapt some of the research that I found about needs assessment and testing procedures. What I’m trying to say is that, while these more personal genres may sometimes seem to be created out of nowhere, they really aren’t. Before researching this topic, I wouldn’t even have the slightest clue where to begin expressing the feelings of someone struggling to learn a second language, let alone the feelings of a family member or clinician of such a person. So, research findings are always tied to my genres in some form or another, even though it may not first appear that way.

I think the genre that will most directly incorporate direct research findings will be my Power Point presentation. I’m still unsure of exactly what information I am going to present in this genre, but I have come up with some new ideas this week. Since this is my made up clinician’s first time working with an ESL client, I think I am going to have the Power Point created by her. The intended audience would be other clinicians who are new to working with ESL clients. In the Power Point, my essential question would be directly addressed. The clinician will address why it is crucial for clinicians to understand the various needs of the ESL clients in order to create a potentially successful therapy plan. While addressing why knowledge of the ESL client’s needs is important, the clinician will present examples of ways to assess these needs…observation in different environments, self-assessment questionnaires, informal questioning, analyzing responses to communication probes, and administration of different informal tests such as the Multiple Intelligence test. At least, that’s the tentative idea I have right now for the Power Point presentation. I hope that genre isn’t due next week, because it’s definitely something that is requiring a great deal of thought and planning. I noticed that one of my peer reviewers for my journal entries mentioned that some of this testing might not be in the scope of practice for a SLP. I’m glad this point was brought up. I don’t exactly know what is and what isn’t in the scope of practice, because working with second language learners isn’t as common as working with people who speak English and have various communication disorders. All I can say in response is that I will try to check to see what’s in the scope of practice for SLP’s working with ESL clients. Actually, I think my peer reviewer was a little confused about the tests that I talked about in the journal entry. The made up clinician would not be giving the client, Thani, an IQ test. What I said was a multiple intelligence test…which is a test, developed by Howard Gardner, that groups learners’ capabilities into eight broad categories. It’s based on the notion that every student’s learning style is unique and is a combination of these eight intelligences. My thought behind including this in an ESL client’s needs assessment would be so that the SLP could get a better indication of what tasks (logical, visual, kinesthetic, musical, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, or naturalistic) the client excels at, so that therapy can in some way present the necessary information in that specific form (or maybe in a few different forms if the client is equally good at several different areas). I’m still not sure if I am on the right track of thinking here. Even if I found out that a SLP cannot perform some of these various tests I’ve mentioned, I can still have the SLP request that the tests be administered by the appropriate professional and then have the results sent to her. Therefore, my overall project flow won’t be disrupted or altered drastically even if I do find out an SLP isn’t qualified to administer certain needs assessment tests.

In addition to working on MRP genres and Power Point ideas, I reviewed my peers’ work, received comments about my own work, and then completed the assignment concerning my mailing list. First of all, I definitely appreciated the constructive criticism that my peers offered. Of course, it’s always nice to hear positive compliments about the work I’ve done, but I am always much more appreciative of the people who can find places in my work that need extra attention. My peers were able to find many areas that I needed to address and I was very grateful for their honesty. Although I haven’t had much time to change my work yet, I made notes on a piece of paper listing what areas of my genres needed extra work/modifications. That way, when I do have some extra time, I can go back to my work, read the comments, find which ones I agree with, and then, change my work. I think that peer reviewing isn’t truly beneficial if the reviewer can’t make at least one suggestion for improvement or add some way to make the piece of work more interesting or clear to the reader. Sometimes, it is difficult to offer someone these suggestions because their work might appear perfect (really I’m not sure if perfect work even exists…excellent or outstanding, yes, but perfect I feel may not be realistic). One thing I’ve learned during the peer review process is that it’s easy for me to find grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors, but much more difficult to offer peers suggestions about the content of their work. I guess this comes from helping my mom grade/edit so many of her students' papers when I was in high school. Anyway, the next time I peer review, I’m going to try to focus more of my comments (in the “address” sections) on the content of the students' work. I feel that then, the people in my group will benefit much more than if I tell them to add a comma in line 5. Later this week, I completed the mailing assignment, which resulted in a change in my thinking. Maybe it wasn’t so much a change in my thinking, but more of a realization…that I hate my mailing list! It’s not that I can’t sometimes find good information relating to my topic there, it’s just that I don’t like the way the people interact with one another. Many of the list subscribers are just rude to other people and this disturbs me. Previously, I never really took the time to think about their interactions with one another until I was asked to do so in the discussion portion of the mailing list assignment. I guess my mailing list situation is weird because I want to stay a part of it because it offers some good information about ESL. On the other hand, I don’t want to stay a part of it because of the way some of the people present this information and negatively respond to others’ comments. I learned from this assignment that if I ever choose to host a mailing list/discussion forum in the future, I will definitely try my best to make all members feel welcomed and supported. I would encourage members to express their opinions and respect (not necessarily agree) others’ opinions and questions.

In sum, lots of MRP work/planning was accomplished, a few new processes were used, and a couple changes in my thinking occurred. I have no questions at this point except for the one I’ve been asking since about week three of this class. HOW DO YOU CHANGE THE FONT SIZE FOR MY WEBLIOGRAPHY? I know my webliography looks awful because of the font size inconsistency and I’ve tried to figure out how to change it, but I have had no luck. I’m still looking for some help on this matter. Until next week….

My quote for the week:
“Breathe.” --Erin Nichols