CEU Challenge: Week 6 - Reading Comprehension in Secondary Students - Assessment

I was quite excited about the topic of this week's CEU course from LinguiSystems: Reading Comprehension in Secondary Students: Assessment. As you may or may not know (I can't remember if I've mentioned it before) I was 3/4 done with a PhD program when Michael came along just a little sooner than I planned for starting a chain of events that completely shifted my priorities. The area I was studying was reading. I love reading. I like engaging in recreational reading. I like studying reading. I like teaching reading. I like assessing reading. In the past few weeks I have adored listening Michael read his first real books to me (Dr. Seuss Beginner Books are now within his reach).

The only reservation I had about this topic was that reference to "Secondary Students". Traditionally, I most enjoy working with toddlers and preschoolers and then early and late elementary. As children reach high school I am less in my comfort zone. As it turns out, I would say that a large portion of this course is applicable to working with elementary students as well - at least 65-70% of the course. This makes it well worth your time even if you work with younger children. When you finish the course you'll be familiar with the underlying skills woven into skilled reading and the role an SLP can play in assessment. You will also earn 0.2 CEUs or 2 hours of Continuing Education Credit.

I found the course material to be comprehensive and well organized. I also found it to be easily understood, but I was already familiar with most of the material, so I may not be the best judge of that. The 20 question multiple-choice quiz was straightforward and relatively quick to take. After completing this course I have finished 13 of the 15 continuing education credits I need for the calendar year.

Did anyone else take this course? What did you think?

Don't forget to complete Week 7: Reading Comprehension in Secondary Students: Intervention - 0.2 CEUs for next Friday! This will be the last course in my 7 Week Free CEU Challenge.

See the complete 7-Week Free CEU Challenge here.

If you missed it, catch up on my Week 1 review: Counseling Theories and Skills for SLPs - 0.2 CEUs. Then catch up on my Week 2 review: Evidence-Based Practice - 0.2 CEUs. If you're still going strong when you finish that one, check out the Week 3 review: Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children - 0.2 CEUs. Then catch the Week 4 review: Introduction to Ethical Decision Making in Speech-Language Pathology - 0.2 CEUs. The Week 5 review is here: HFA, AS, & NVLD: Differential Diagnosis by the SLP - 0.3 CEUs.

CEU Challenge: Week 5 - HFA, AS, & NVLD: Differential Diagnosis by the SLP

My four week and counting streak of completing these CEU courses on time was nearly derailed by the winter storm that kept my children and most of the city home yesterday, but I managed to squeeze in some CEU time while my husband entertained the children with after dinner driveway clearing. I took the HFA, AS, & NVLD: Differential Diagnosis by the SLP course at LinguiSystems and received 0.3 CEUs or 3 hours of Continuing Education Credit. (HFA - High Functioning Autism, AS - Asperger's Syndrome, NVLD - Nonverbal Learning Disorder)

I completely forgot that this is the one course in the 7-week free CEU curriculum that is 0.3 CEUs instead of 0.2 CEU's. I was also rushing things a bit due to having to squeeze this into the evening rather than "leisurely" engaging with the material while my children were at preschool. Therefore I struggled a little more with this course than with the others. However, this course is interesting. Even if you have no need to actually diagnose autistic spectrum disorders, you will find the material interesting and useful if you have some children on the spectrum on your caseload. The author of the course discusses similarities and differences between the three disorders, gives examples, and discusses treatment.

I found the HFA, AS, & NVLD: Differential Diagnosis by the SLP interesting and full of detail. I will certainly bookmark it as a useful reference to return to if I need to review the specifics in the future. The 20 question multiple-choice quiz was more frustrating than some others, but to be fair the course is intended to be longer/more complex. I had to dig deeper into the material and sift through rather fine details to figure out which of similar seeming multiple-choice answers was the correct choice. I received a lower, although still passing score, on this course than on any of the others. I earned 0.3 additional continuing education credits towards the 1.5 I need to earn this calendar year. At this point, two more courses will allow us to reach our goal of 1.5 CEUs.

Did anyone else take this course? What did you think?

Don't forget to complete Week 6: Reading Comprehension in Secondary Students: Assessment - 0.2 CEUs for next Friday!

See the complete 7-Week Free CEU Challenge here.

If you missed it, catch up on my Week 1 review: Counseling Theories and Skills for SLPs - 0.2 CEUs. Then catch up on my Week 2 review: Evidence-Based Practice - 0.2 CEUs. If you're still going strong when you finish that one, check out the Week 3 review: Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children - 0.2 CEUs. Then catch the Week 4 review: Introduction to Ethical Decision Making in Speech-Language Pathology - 0.2 CEUs.

Checklist Version of Missouri State Teaching Standards for Kindergarten

Here's a summary of the background that led up to this post in equation format.

Decision to Homeschool + Type A Personality Driven Homeschool Planner = Desire to Understand and Organize the Missouri State Teaching Standards.

As a brief aside, for those of you familiar enough with current events in teaching standards to wonder, Missouri has indeed adopted the Common Core Standards in Language Arts and Math. I did consider using the Common Core standards instead of the Missouri specific state standards in those areas. However, after reviewing both the common core standards and the Missouri State standards in those two areas I decided that the Missouri standards were fairly well aligned with the common core standards and gave more specific guidance and more detail. They worked better for me and so I decided to make my checklist from the Missouri State Standards across the board.

When I dug into the standards I realized that the format provided online (multi-grade level chart spanning 10 or more pages per content area) was not super user-friendly. I needed a simple checklist of the standards pertaining to the grade I would be teaching - kindergarten. So I read through the standards, organized and synthesized the content, and created checklists for each content area: communication arts, math, social studies, science, health education, music, visual arts, dramatic arts, and physical education. I added the checklists to my homeschool planner for easy reference during planning and intend to check off each standard as it is mastered.

Just in case anyone else needs a copy of Missouri's kindergarten standards here they are. Honestly, aside from small details here and there, I would think they would work as a guideline for homeschooling in just about any geographical area.