ABSTRACT
This case depicts a scenario centered on Ms. Noest, an elementary school physical education teacher who navigates initial experiences educating children with autism spectrum disorder in physical education. Ms. Noest begins the academic year with her new students integrated into her general physical education class. In this class, she follows a very similar instructional routine to what she had done during her previous years of teaching. However, she notices quickly that not all the students with autism spectrum disorder are engaged and successful during her classes. At a loss for what to do, Ms. Noest reaches out to colleagues and consults adapted physical education references to gain ideas on how to develop more effective teaching practices for her students. In addition, Ms. Noest discusses concerns about the placement of students with autism spectrum disorder with her school’s principal, who agrees that a self-contained placement may be the best option. Ms. Noest’s newly formed self-contained class looks qualitatively different from her other classes, as she infuses teaching strategies garnered from her colleagues and adapted physical education references, and it only takes a few short weeks for students in the class to show demonstrable growth.
