I am normal like everybody else
I wonder why people make fun of me
I hear them whispering about me
I see them laughing at me
I want them to see that I am no different
I am normal like everybody else

I pretend that I am happy all the time
I feel sadness
I touch ?
I worry that I really am different
I cry because people call me names
I am normal like everybody else

I understand that I have a speech problem
I say that I won't have it forever
I dream of being liked
I try to avoid talking
I hope they would stop making fun of me
I am normal like everybody else

Content:
For the MRP project I was to develop an essential question and from this question I needed to develop six genres that had to be written in a least three different voices. These genres are what I used to help answer my essential question. My essential question is: How can SLP’s help children with communication disorders overcome the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder? After the essential question was developed I developed my foundation questions, which were questions, that I thought would help me come up with an answer to my essential question. From, my essential question and foundation questions I then developed my project prospectus. The project prospectus included my essential question, foundation questions, tentative point, my genres, and resources that I might use. The project prospectus served as an outline that helped guide me on the right track as it helped me figure out how I was going to going to approach my project. The MRP project consisted of doing 6 genres and I chose to do a webliography, poem, and power point presentation, journal entry, interview, and a letter to the editor. My voices that I decided to use for my project were that of a teacher, clinician, client, and parent. I did the webliogrpahy in the voice of the clinician to let readers learn more about myself, the field of speech pathology, and my topic. The poem was in the voice of the child and it was to address how children with communication disorders feel about themselves. The power point presentation was in the voice of the clinician and it was directed towards parents and teachers to learn how a communication disorder affects that person. The journal entry was done in the voice of the teacher and it had her thoughts about how communication disorders, and how a child is affected by a communication disorder, and what she can do to help the child feel better about themselves. The interview was the voice of the clinician and teacher. Here the clinician was suggesting activities that a teacher can use to help a child with a communication disorder feel better about themselves and interact more with others. The letter to the editor was in the voice of the parent expressing how her child with a communication disorder get treated in school and how it makes her and the child feel, and addressed the fact that the way her child gets treated needs to change.

Process:
As I have been told doing an MRP was a totally new way of doing a research project for both the teacher and us students. I will admit that I was terrified about doing the MRP. Having done research papers the exact same way every time I did not know if I could step it up several notches and break away from the traditional way of research. Using different genres and voices really changed the way you would traditionally do research. Traditionally for a research paper you come up with one answer to that question. Here using the MRP you use different voices and audiences to come up with an answer to your question. The MRP is a really different way to do research but the change in research is a very beneficial change. I think that having different voices and audiences directed toward answering your question allows you to explore and learn more about your research topic. Since this was a new idea of doing research I did have some trouble formulating several ideas. At first I had trouble coming up with an essential question. I was interested in so many things that it made it hard for me to come up with one question that we wanted to know more about. My main interest was on how a communication disorder can affect a person’s self-image/esteem of that child and what can SLP’s do to help them feel better about themselves. After changing my question several times I finally came up with a solid essential question. Now, having a question that I thought I could get an answer to I was beginning to feel less overwhelmed and more calm about doing this project. When it came time to decide my genres I went back and reviewed my essential and foundation questions. I looked at the questions that I thought I needed to answer and then I developed my genres based on what I thought would best answer my question. To help me come up with my genres I referred back to my essential and foundation questions and came up with genres that I think would answer my essential question. Other than the webliography, poem, and power point, I chose a journal, letter to the editor, interview, and journal entry. Then I looked at my genres and picked the voice that I thought would best represent that genre. Which the voices I chose were that of a clinician, teacher, parent, and child. My webliography genre was the voice of the clinician and included information about myself (what interests me, what I like etc.) and it also had sites about the field of speech pathology, and my topic. I chose this genre to be in the voice of the clinician because I thought that the readers could get an understanding about myself, the field of speech pathology, and my topic. I did not have too much trouble putting together my webliography other than having problem linking my sites. I also, had trouble finding websites that pertain to my area of research. However, once I used different key words to search for my topic I was able to find a lot more research resources. Another genre I did was an I am poem. The poem genre was done in the voice of the child to show how a communication disorder affects that person. Here I wanted to show how a person with a communication disorder often feels due to the fact that peers do not perceive them (people with communication disorders) as normal people. Usually, many people who have a communication disorders are often perceived as different from the other children. My main goal with this poem was to show that people with communication disorders are normal kids and they are just like the other kids. When I first did the poem I explained how a person with a communication disorder gets treated but I did not give any information on how this kid is normal compared to the other kids. I decided to take the suggestion and make it an I am poem with an internal dialogue. So I explained how this child feels with a communication disorder but I also gave information on how this child is normal like his peers. Another genre I did was the power point genre and it was the voice of the clinician and gave general information about communication disorders and how they can affect the life of the child. Here I included what all a communication disorder can affect which is more than just speech and language. In the presentation I included how a communication disorder affects their self-esteem, academic performance, and how it affects themselves. I did not have too much trouble doing the presentation. I did go back and make it easier to read and I added more information to the slides. Then the interview genre was designed to educate the classroom teacher on what they can do for their students who have low self-esteem as a result of a communication disorder. The interview was in the voice of the clinician and teacher and was used to talk about what activities a teacher can use to help increase a child’s self-esteem as well as, explain how important a high self -esteem is for a child. I really did not have any problems with the interview. The letter to the editor was in the voice of the parent and was to address how a parent feels about the way their child gets treated and how the way their child gets treated needs to stop. The letter to the editor gave me the most trouble. I have never written a letter to the editor so I found it hard to do. I basically took the information that I know about how a communication disorder causes a child to feel. With this information I took it from a parent perspective and wrote about how they feel about their child with a communication disorder and what they think should be done to help them feel better about themselves. I also, did a journal entry genre and it was in the voice of a teacher. I used this genre to tie everything together. The journal entry was to express the teacher’s thoughts about communication disorders and how she can help children with communication disorders feel better about themselves. For my MRP I decided to start with the journal entry by having the teacher reflect on her day. Then she reads the newspaper and comes across a letter to the editor and realizes that communication disorders affect more than just their speech and language. To see how her student with a communication disorder feel she has the class do an I am poem. This poem causes her to realize that she needs to learn more about how a communication disorder affects that child which she learns this information from the power point presentation. Then she has an interview with the speech pathologist to learn how she can help the child increase his self-esteem and feel better about himself. Then webliography is used as an informational source that the teacher can look at to find more information about communication disorders.

Premise:
I really think using the MRP format to do a research question rather than the traditional way of doing research has allowed me to learn more about my topic. My question was; How can SLP’s help children with communication disorder overcome the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder? I think the parents voice allows you to understand how the negative impact of a communciation disorder not only affects their child but themselves too. I think the clinician voice directly answer the question by giving strategies of how they can help a child improve their self-esteem/image due to the negative impact that a communication disorder can have. Having the voice of the teacher allows you to understand what they need to know about communication disorders and how they can help a child overcome this negative impact that is often associated with a communication disorder. Children spend most of their day in their classroom and it is a good idea to get the voice of a teacher and write about her thoughts and feelings about having students with communication disorders. I think the clients voice is important to explain through their eyes how a communication disorder can impact their life. I think a different voice really helps you answer your research. I am answering my question based on how the child feels, how the parent feels, what needs to be done in order to not be treated negatively by peers, how this negative impact affect the child, and what can be done. I think that all these points of views need to be looked at and researched in order to answer my question. How can you talk about strategies of how to improve the self-esteem of a child if you don’t know how that child feels? Even though you can write this information in a traditional research paper this project makes it seem more real because you are actually conveying how other people feel about the same topic. I think having this project done in different points of view and audiences has really made the project more enjoyable than traditional research. I have truly learned so much more with this method than with the traditional way of research.

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