| Course | MSW 517 Advanced Social Work Practice Across Systems |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post |
| Length | About 400 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 517 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
One Call Before Anyone Calls Home: Phoning the School Counselor About a 13-Year-Old's Absences Before Contacting the Parent, the Belief Behind That Order and What the Choice Closes Off
The Situation
A middle school counselor referred M., 13, to our family services agency on a Friday afternoon. The sheet says M. has missed 14 days since the start of September, mostly Mondays and Thursdays, and lists a parent, L., with a phone number. Nothing else. The district's attendance office will send a warning letter after the next absence.
The Action
On Monday at 8:15 a.m., I will call the counselor back before I call L. I will ask three things: which dates M. missed, whether M. has said anything about mornings at home and whether the school has contacted L. already.
Each answer changes what I say to L. If the school has already called, I will not open as though I am the first.
The Belief Behind It
The belief is that a child's absence from school is often someone's solution to something at home before it is anybody's problem. Absences clustered on two weekdays look to me less like avoidance than like a schedule. If that is right, the first call should collect the pattern from the person who sees it, so that my first words to L. are a question about the household, not about attendance. In a Florida county survey of 12,681 middle and high school students, about half reported caregiving roles, and about two thirds of those said caregiving had cost them school time, homework or activities (Siskowski, 2006). That does not tell me what is happening for M. It tells me the question is worth asking first.
What the Opening Shuts
Calling the school first means the school's frame reaches me before the family's. The counselor may already have a theory, and I may carry it into L.'s kitchen. It also risks L. hearing from the school that the agency called about them. And it delays contact with the household by a morning, which matters if something urgent is happening there. I accept those costs for a pattern I cannot get anywhere else.
A Question for the Thread
For anyone who would call L. first: what would you say in the first sentence, and what would it tell L. about why you are calling?
References
Siskowski, C. (2006). Young caregivers: Effect of family health situations on school performance. The Journal of School Nursing, 22(3), 163-169. https://doi.org/10.1177/10598405060220030701
The Chamberlain MSW 517 Week 1 instructions
The opening discussion gives you a thin situation, or asks you to build one, and wants a single action for the first working day. Make the action concrete and datable: who you contact, in what order and what you ask. Then state the belief behind it as a claim about what difficulties like this are usually made of, not as a value such as trust or respect. Say what your opening closes off, since every first move makes some later moves harder. Keep the situation thin enough that the decision is under pressure; an invented case so detailed that any opening fits it removes the point. Theory can appear lightly. Replies should meet a classmate who made a different first move and ask what their opening would sound like.
How the MSW 517 Week 1 example is put together
The situation paragraph gives only the referral sheet: M., 13, fourteen absences mostly on Mondays and Thursdays, a parent's name and number, and a warning letter due after the next absence. The action section commits to calling the counselor at 8:15 on Monday with three questions about dates, anything M. has said and prior school contact. The belief section states that absence is often someone's solution at home before it is a problem, reads the clustered days as a schedule, and cites Siskowski (2006), whose survey of 12,681 students found many reporting caregiving roles. The closing section names three costs of calling the school first, including that its theory reaches the worker before the family's. A question asks classmates who would phone the parent first what their opening sentence would be.
Where the points sit in the MSW 517 Week 1 rubric
Faculty can grade a call, not a temperament, so most of the credit attaches to an action specific enough to be dated and checked. An intention to build rapport earns almost nothing. Next, the belief must be stated as a claim about what the difficulty is made of, which gives the reasoning something to hold. Points follow an honest account of what the opening shuts. A situation drawn so thin that any opening would fit loses marks, as does one so rich that no choice is hard. Sources are optional in week 1 but should be accurate and cited in APA if used. Replies are graded on whether they engage a worker who chose differently. Length and register should suit a discussion board.
MSW 517 Week 1 help from the desk
The post that loses first reads as a temperament: warmth, trust and meeting the family where they are, with no call in it. Another common problem is an invented case so loose that the opening could be anything. Some posts state a commitment as a value rather than a belief about what difficulties are made of, which leaves nothing to dispute. Others list three first moves. If your situation is different, perhaps a hospital discharge referral or a call from a landlord about a tenant, the same structure works: one action with a time, the belief behind it and what it closes. A post drafted for your situation would keep the referral details sparse and make the first move something a supervisor could put in a diary.
Get a MSW-517 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Post your discussion instructions and the rubric rows your section grades against, plus whatever case material came with them. A custom MSW-517 Week 1 post is written to those requirements and comes back inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. Read it next to your own draft before anything of yours lands in the classroom.
More MSW 517 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 517 Week 2: Practice Frame Inventory
- MSW 517 Week 3: First Move Memo
- MSW 517 Week 4: Session Choice Contrast
- MSW 517 Week 5: Group Work Plan
- MSW 517 Week 6: Agency Practice Memo
- MSW 517 Week 7: Macro Practice Write-up
- MSW 517 Week 8: Practice Integration Paper
- MSW 516 Week 1: Efficacy Expectation Term Post
- MSW 515 Week 1: Program to Evaluate Post
- MSW 514 Week 1: Person in Environment Mechanism Post
- MSW 513 Week 1: Hardship Versus Injustice Post
MSW 517 Week 1 questions, answered
Does the post have to commit to one opening?
Yes, and the grade depends on it. A post laying out three reasonable openings and picking none of them has described a menu rather than made a decision, and the reasoning rows have nothing to hold on to. Committing is not the same as being certain: you can name the call you would make and still say what would change your mind by Wednesday.
Can I write about a situation I made up?
In many sections yes, and it is often the safer route. Build it thin enough to stay ordinary and thick enough to force a choice: one referral source, one household, one detail pulling toward a different first contact. A situation where every action looks equally sensible gives the discussion nothing to push against and leaves your replies with no work.
How much theory belongs in a first-week post?
One line, placed where it did work. This course reads a framework as the thing your action leaned on, so naming it beside your commitment is enough. A paragraph on where the idea came from, or on how it was assembled, spends a short word count on the part nobody is grading in this course.
Where can I find a free MSW 517 Week 1 sample paper?
You can read a full MSW 517 Week 1 discussion post committing to a first call on a school absence referral here, with margin notes on the belief behind it.
Why does the MSW 517 Week 1 sample call the counselor before the parent?
To get the pattern of missed days from the person who sees it, so the first words to the parent can be a question about the household rather than about attendance.