Banner image for Social Work Classes featuring an adult couple with a child silhouetted against a sunset over an ocean with words on the image telling us that this is a Social Work course at the University of Illinois in Springfield, and the course title is Introduction to Social Work.

Session 5.  February 16th to February 23rd 

Class meeting this week is in the classroom or Zoom. 

Zoom link is https://uis.zoom.us/j/96733201869?pwd=M0VZMWxPMkhSRlJXQXBQK09kYmZzdz09
Meeting ID: 967 3320 1869 Password: 322322

Class session lasts from February 16 at 2:00 p.m. to February 23 at 1:59 p.m. 
This page describes what you should do in this fifth session.    

Objectives of this session

  1. Consider the work done by school social workers, and contemplate that career direction.
  2. Consider some of the issues around kinship care, the reasons it is generally better, and the reasons sometime it isn’t.
  3. Learn about the sort of work done by social workers who are agency administrators
  4. Learn about managed care and the role of social work in managed care (consider evidence-based practice and the ethical obligation to offer service that are likely to benefit the client).
  5. Finish (or nearly finish) the first draft of your paper.

Time Budget for 8 hours

2h 30m   Time reading and posting in Canvas discussion board

1h    Read Chapter 6 (Managing in Managed Care); chapter 26 (Developmental Disabilities in families); and chapter 45 (Life as an Agency CEO). If you have Days in the Lives of Social Workers, 4th edition these are chapters 6, 21,& 45 (pages 59-64; 165-170; 319-323).

4h          Try to finish up the first draft of your paper, so you can share it with classmates.

30m     You are ready to take the second test, which should be available now.

What will happen in the class meeting at the start of this session?

During our 2.5 hours, I expect to use time in the following ways:

    We will cover the chapters you have been reading in Days in the Lives of Social Workers and learning about "communities and risk" and policy practice and social change. We may also cover the topic of advocacy if we have not already done that. Students should be ready to share some of their work on their papers.

    There may be a brief lecture on social work theory.

What must you read this week?

Read Chapters 6, 26, and 47 (pages 99-179) in Days of the Lives of Social Workers
These are the chapters: Managing in Managed Care; Developmental Disabilities in families; and Life as an Agency CEO.

 

Work on your paper.

You ought to be finishing your first draft of your paper this week, and editing it in preparation for sharing it with your classmates. You probably should devote four or five hours to your paper.

Activities

There are no special homework assignments or activities. Please do focus on finishing your paper’s first draft.

If, however, you are taking the lab, you really need to be sure you have arranged to do your 30 hours of voluntary service somewhere, and this week you ought to notify your instructor of where you will be volunteering.

  1. It is okay to split your volunteering between two places.
  2. If you want to do “voluntary hours” equivalent to learn about social work by attending a social work conference or some other conference or workshop where you will learn in-depth about social work or some aspect of social work, the conference or workshop attendance can be used for about half of your thirty hours, but you must also do some sort of service for at least 15 hours in addition to the 15+ hours of attendance in any workshop(s) or conference(s).

Working on your Assignments

You have one special assignment this week (in addition to working on your paper)

  1. Please finish writing the first draft of your paper.

Discussion Questions this week

Here are the discussion questions. You should have time to answer a few of them, and also respond to some of your classmates. Remember to devote at least an hour to the discussion board participation, even if you attended the Zoom class meeting.

  1. Discussion Question 1:
    By the end of this 5th session we will be 1/3rd of the way done with the semester. During this week's check-in, you can do the usual and explain how your life is going and what you are thinking and doing. But, for this week, I'd like people to check in with news about two things: 1) what is something that made you laugh in the past week? and 2) What is something you are grateful for that you noticed or appreciated in the past week?

  2. Discussion Question 2:

    You might remember that when Diane Foster was looking for a placement for one of the children removed from parental custody, she had to try to find a kin carer first. In America we also have a preference for kinship care. As a matter of fact, the research showing that, on average, kinship care (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, older siblings) is better than foster care with non-relatives comes from research done in Illinois by social work professors at the University of Illinois. But, Diane was worried about kinship care, and while it is usually better to place children in kinship care, this is not a hard rule, as sometimes it's better not to use family members for placements. Let's discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of kinship care (as you creatively imagine plausible scenarios). What are the concerns you would have about placing a child with a relative? What are some of the reasons you might prefer to place the child with a relative?

  3. Discussion Question 3:

    You have by now read chapters in Days in the Lives of Social Workers about social work in elementary school and social work in a vocational high school. What are some of the attractions of working in a school setting, and what did the authors of those chapters say about their work that made it seem to you like you might enjoy such work? What are some of the repellant aspect of working in schools, and what did the authors of those school social work chapters mention that made you doubt that you would enjoy working as a school social worker? What about the caseloads? What about the hours? Let's discuss the attractions and problems of life as a school social worker.

  4. Discussion Question 4:

    In this fifth week of class, you should be well along in reading materials and working on a first draft of your paper.  Use this thread to discuss and explain what you are doing, and what you are learning from the sources you have found.  Ask questions of your classmates and give them some encouraging suggestions or points to help them work on their papers.

Interesting Stuff To Explore

You must submit your first draft of your paper to other students soon. Here are some resources that might help you prepare your draft:

Some social work issues you may want to know about: