PROMPT: How does the writing process employ inquiring?

Writing is a very powerful and useful tool. You can write through your feelings of anger or sadness, or even express your joy. It can be used as a tool for discovery. I looked up inquiry in the dictionary and found what I think is a pretty good definition. It described it as a search for truth, information, or knowledge. I am a person who learns the most through writing. For me, writing is the perfect instrument for me to search for truth. Before I write, I have to really think about the subject and formulate my thoughts. While I write, I put all my thoughts together in a coherent manner. After I write, I usually come up with a clearer picture and a better understanding of the topic. Writing enables me to find the truth, obtain more information, and possess more knowledge. Writing results in breakthroughs and new discoveries.

Here's an example of how writing is discovery. I was watching Oprah a while back, and there was this lady on her show talking about the same sort of thing. She was a journalist, and I do not remember all the details, but she was talking about how writing helped her find who she really is. She had said the she had written all these articles about others and one day she started writing about herself. She wrote without inhibition. She did not think about the way others perceived her; she just wrote without holding anything back. Through the process of writing, she was able to discover the truth about herself.

Resource: Academic Search Elite
Keyword: Laryngectomee

Blood, Gordon W., & Dineen, Mary (1993). Perceived control, adjustment, and communication problems in laryngeal cancer survivors. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 93(77), 764-766.

Miralles, Jose L., & Cervera, Teresa (1995). Voice Intelligibility in patients who have undergone laryngectomies. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 38(3), 564-571.

Smithwick, Lynn, Davis, Priscilla, Dancer, Jess, Hicks, Gretchen Spring, & Montague, Jim (2002). Female laryngectomees' satisfication with communication methods and speech-language pathologists. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 94(1), 204-206.

Resource: ERIC
Keyword: Laryngectomee

Christensen, John M., & Dwyer, Patricia E. (1990). Improving Alaryngeal Speech Intelligibility. Journal of Communication Disorders, 23, 445-451.

Salva, Caroline T., & Kallail, Ken J. (1989). An investigation of the counseling needs of male and female laryngectomees. Journal of Communication Disorders, 22, 291-304.

Essential Question:
"How can an artificial larynx restore a client’s voice after a laryngectomy?"

Foundation Questions:
1. Why is it important to try to restore a client’s voice after a laryngectomy?

2. What is an artificial larynx?

3. How does an artificial larynx work?

4. What are the benefits of an artificial larynx?

5. What type of clients are good candidates for an artificial larynx?

Since posting my essential question last week, I have changed it due to lack of information. My new essential question is totally different. It is “How can an artificial larynx restore a client’s voice after a laryngectomy?” I have come up with a few foundation questions, so far. They are:

1. Why is it important to try to restore a client’s voice after a laryngectomy?
2. What is an artificial larynx?
3. What type of clients are good candidates for an artificial larynx?
4. How does an artificial larynx work?

Think about your experience and history as a learner. What story can you tell? Write about your disconnections with learning (the things that cause you grief, create barriers, impede your progress as a learner). Then, write about the tensions and excitements associate with learning. Use specific examples when possible to illustrate your meaning.

What story can I tell about me as a learner? I tried to think about the first lesson I learned, and I was unsuccessful. I can not remember learning much as a kid. I guess it was because I learned most things with ease. I have to study and put some effort into learning; I have never been the type to read something once and then be able to use and apply it, though I often wish I was.

I do not remember learning to read, or write either in print or cursive, or even to add. What I do remember learning was not in school. I remember my mom teaching me Psalms 23, and my dad and my coaches showing me how to catch a fly ball and steal 2nd base. I think that it is so weird that I do not remember learning the majority of the stuff I learned in my younger years in school. I think that I do not remember because it came easy to me. I hardly ever remember getting upset over a grade, or stressing over a class until college.

I have never really struggled with learning anything. Math has always given me fits, though. I remember when I was in third grade, I did not know my multiplication facts and my teacher was going to give us some kind of test on it the next day. I did not sleep much that night; I worried and worried. I kept going over those facts in my head over and over. Instead of counting sheep to get to sleep, I was doing multiplication. I do not remember what I got on that test, but I must have done okay, since I passed third grade. The only thing that I can think of that has impeded my progress as a learner is myself. I can think of many times that I have been too hard on myself and expected too much, or lacked confidence. Almost every time I can think of in which I have had trouble learning, it was with math. I have been thinking about it and I think it all goes back to lack of confidence and too high of expectation. Math has always been tough for me, but thinking about it I was never in a general math class. Once I hit middle school, I was in the advanced math classes. It’s weird to me now, that I think I am so bad in math, yet I have always been in the classes with the “smart kids”. I guess that I am what holds me back. Take the example I just gave, my teachers were confident even with my skills to put me in Honors math classes, but I lacked the belief that I could do it. I think that is why I struggle with learning when I do, because I am insecure with my skills as a learner.

Learning can be so rewarding. I get really excited when I am taking a test and I am like “Wow, I really know this stuff”, or when I get involved in an educated conversation with someone about something that I have learned. One example of the latter happened to me last semester when I was volunteering at Health South. A lady was had been admitted to Health South around Christmas, I think it was. She had been there before over the summer for something, I think it was knee surgery or something like that. This time she was in because she had had a stroke. I could tell a HUGE difference in her. I had remembered her from the first time she was there. She was one of the patients that I liked and talked to. Anyway, I do not remember the exact deficits she had or what kind of a stroke she had experienced, but I got into two interesting conversations about her. One was with her brother and the other was with another OT. I remember leaving there that day so excited because I could actually apply what I had learned in Neurogenics class to a real situation in a real conversation, one with a professional.