Case Studies in Adapted Physical Education

Empowering Critical Thinking

Samuel Hodge, Nathan Murata, Martin Block, Lauren Lieberman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000747362
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Covering self-contained adapted physical education classes, general physical education programs, and youth sports and community recreation, this book presents a series of case studies of teaching individuals of varied ability and disability in physical activity settings. Outlining realistic scenarios, it encourages an interactive, problem-solving teaching and learning style and the development of critical thinking skills.

Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, the book covers a wide range of different professional issues, themes, disabilities, and conditions, from assessment and behavior management processes to working with students with intellectual disabilities, motor difficulties, chronic illness, or obesity. Each case study includes questions that challenge the reader to reflect on the practical issues involved and how to build inclusive teaching strategies.

This book is valuable reading for all physical education students, teacher candidates, and novice and experienced teachers looking to deepen their understanding of adapted physical education and to improve their professional practice. It is an essential companion to any adapted physical education or physical activity course.

1
CHANGING ATTITUDES

Out of the Shadows and Into the Gym

Elizabeth A. Smorol and Sean Denniston

Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity, sameness for oneness. One word–boring! Students in Physical Education Leadership¹ class turn differences into strengths, and the results are inspiring.

When Mrs. Smorol was hired at Lockport High School 24 years ago, she would pull volunteer students out of lunch and study halls to swim with her adapted physical education (PE) class. Mrs. Smorol did this solely because it was just her and 15–20 students with special needs. They were not allowed to go swimming because of the number of students, and most of them simply could not swim. Once she got enough volunteers, they got the OK to swim, and everyone went into the pool. This sparked many ideas. “What if I had volunteers year-round? What if I had more volunteers? What if I had more equipment? What if … ?” So she presented her idea to the athletic director, then to the principal, then to the board of education. Three years later, Physical Education Leadership was born.

With Physical Education Leadership, students received their required PE requirement and credit, and Mrs. Smorol no longer had to seek out volunteers. Physical Education Leadership is a combined class with specially designed (adapted) PE. Each student without disabilities is paired 1:1 with a student with special needs for the entire school year. The students with special needs are taught by the general education student. They learn everything from basic locomotor skills to lifelong activities. All activities are overseen by a PE instructor (Mrs. Smorol) and a teacher’s aide. Daily lessons are documented in journals for goal setting and individualized education program building. “Imagine a student, no matter his or her ability level or disability, can now swim, cycle, lift weights, and play sports like floor hockey, volleyball, basketball, and running. My ultimate goal was to create synergy in an adapted setting.”

Mrs. Smorol shares this:

Students without disabilities that have the opportunity to participate in the special programs like these expand their view of the world and build meaningful relationships with students from very different walks of life. In turn, this provides the students with special needs the same opportunity. These students’ meaningful relationships turn into true friendships and some even become teammates. Physical Education Leadership turns inclusion on its head by breaking down barriers in PE. Students with special needs are no longer blended in or pushed to the side. Everyone is an integral part of every skill, every activity, and every game. From the outside it looks like a regular PE class, because on the inside it is. The differences are not between students but the styles of learning. In Physical Education Leadership we don’t just play; we teach life lessons in a full inclusion classroom. A nice video that highlights what students with visual impairments would like is Camp Abilities (n.d.).

Scholars Day Essay by Sean D., Senior, Lockport High School

The following essay was written by Sean D., a senior in the Physical Education Leadership Program at Lockport High. Sean explained,

Like most people my age, I have attended high school for four years. However, unlike most students, I chose to take Physical Education Leadership. PE Leadership partners students with disabilities and students without disabilities to work with them one-on-one for the entire school year. You teach them different skills from everyday locomotor movements to games and sports. When I was in eighth grade, my guidance counselor told me about this new PE class that was going to be offered at the high school; I jumped at the chance to enroll in it. I thought more of my classmates would be interested as well, but when school started the fall of my freshman year, I was the only ninth grader in both sections of PE Leadership. I continued in that class all four years of high school. Not only did I attend my class, but I got a permanent pass to help out the PE Leadership section instead of going to study hall. This class gave me confidence to continue to volunteer to help other students in this class, as well as other organizations at school, and I never thought twice about being in a regular PE class with my friends and teammates. Instead, I talked about how rewarding the class was and convinced my friends to take it with me.

Taking PE Leadership, the road less traveled, spending every day working one-on-one with students with special needs, pushes one to see the similarities between you and your “buddy” instead of the differences. Maybe you both like superheroes or video games. Perhaps you both sit down at the same time on Thursdays to watch a television show. After seeing these interpersonal connections, I consider everyone in that class good friends. We walk together between classes and talk after school while waiting for buses or rides. Sometimes on a free period I drop by their classroom to say hi. They are my equals, as any person should be.

To further touch the lives of students with disabilities, my freshman year, I joined another new program that was introduced to Section VI sports. This new sport, unified basketball, combines students with IEPs [individualized education programs] and students without IEPs on the same basketball team. Again, my heart and my head did not skip a beat to be a part of this unique sports team. Looking back, this was a major decision. The first two years, all of us were picked on. Some of my teammates were even bullied in the halls for being on the unified basketball team. We did not care because being in PE Leadership and unified basketball gave us confidence and determination to do what was right. And even though this now made me a four-sport athlete and I remained a target of derisive comments, it was a choice that I made that I would never change. Playing on this team teaches you the skills and lessons that any other sport does, such as teamwork and goal setting, but it also teaches one to put the interests of others above your own. It teaches you to do so with a smile on your face.

Having the opportunity to participate in the special programs like these afforded me the opportunity to expand my view of the world around me and build meaningful relationships with students from very different walks of life. Dedicating myself to those who do not often have the opportunities to choose a path less traveled provided me the life lesson of how integrity is a reward for choosing courage over comfort.

Last, Sean said, “I agree with the statement, always look for the path less traveled. Have the confidence to take the path others may not view as the right one.”

Facilitation Questions

1. What is the critical issue in this case?
2. Are there related issues? If so, what are they?
3. What are some of the specific elements that contribute to this case?
4. Who are the characters in the case?
5. What role did the characters play in creating and solving these issues?
6. How would you implement this program in your school?
7. Are there any related topics for discussion?
8. What accommodations are required, if any?

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to express our gratitude to Elizabeth A. Smorol, an adapted physical education teacher at Lockport High School, for her insights in writing this case. We also express our appreciation to Sean, her son, a senior who has been involved in the Physical Education Leadership Program and unified sports since he was a freshman in high school.

Reference

Camp Abilities. (n.d.). I feel included when. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZfjrd-B0ho&t=8s

2
TEACHERS NAVIGATING PLACEMENT DECISIONS

Wesley J. Wilson and Justin A. Haegele

Ms. Campbell is an enthusiastic and student-centered adapted physical educator who recently graduated from a high-quality teacher education program with a master’s degree in adapted physical education (APE). She was excited to accept her first teaching position as an itinerant APE specialist for her hometown school district several months ago. Her primary responsibilities as an itinerant APE specialist are to provide direct instruction to several small-group, self-contained classes, as well as consultation to general physical education (GPE) teachers who work with students with disabilities in integrated placements. As well prepared as she is to handle the responsibilities and challenges of traveling from school to school providing APE services to students on her caseload, working at one elementary school in particular–Sunnyside Elementary–has begun to trouble her.

At Sunnyside, a small suburban school, Ms. Campbell provides direct instruction to students in 6:1:1 and 12:1:1¹ self-contained settings, while also serving as a consultant for the school’s GPE teacher, Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs is a burly, veteran GPE teacher of seven years, who is quite popular with the students at Sunnyside. A primary reason for this popularity is due to the largely unstructured, games-only approach he has adopted; students, especially the more skilled ones, enjoy just playing games. Yet the disorganized verging on chaotic structure of Mr. Jacobs’s GPE classes is often overlooked by colleagues and administrators as most of his students leave sweating and smiling. While not agreeing with Mr. Jacobs’s approach to teaching, Ms. Campbell elects to focus on acclimating herself to the needs of the students in her self-contained classes in her first couple of months. For a while, this tactic worked well; Ms. Campbell’s students seemed to be thriving–learning–in the self-contained setting. Many of her students report that it is their favorite class. Of late, however, a notable push toward full integration of her students into GPE, led by an impassioned special educator, Mrs. Kennedy, immediately concerned the new APE specialist.

Ms. Campbell has seen what GPE is like at Sunnyside and questions whether her students can be successful in such a placement. Indeed, Ms. Campbell recalls learning about the least restrictive environment federal mandate, a component of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004, and is troubled that Mrs. Kennedy, a wonderful and kind person by all accounts, is acting on the basis of an inclusion philosophy without regard for what is the most appropriate placement for each student. During multiple encounters, Ms. Campbell has attempted to explain to the special educator that if students could not learn satisfactorily in a particular setting, such as Mr. Jacobs’s GPE class, then it was incumbent upon them to provide alternative placements for the students to learn. However, Mrs. Kennedy is steadfast in her assertions that her students should be integrated in GPE because inclusion is the right thing to do.

Lamar is one such student that Mrs. Kennedy would like to quickly integrate into the GPE setting. Lamar, a fourth grader who has Down syndrome, is currently placed in Ms. Campbell’s self-contained APE class. He often tells his paraeducator and other teachers that he loves the APE activities and loves playing with his friends during the class. His experiences in APE conflict greatly with his behaviors at home, where he seldom engages in physical activities and is often found sitting by a television. In fact, his success in learning fundamental motor skills in the self-contained placement is one of the reasons that Mrs. Kennedy is pushing for his participation in GPE. On the other hand, Mr. Jacobs readily admits that he is nervous about integrating Lamar in one of his GPE classes. “I don’t know if I can keep him safe in my class! You know how rambunctious the other students can be,” he would tell Ms. Campbell. Ms. Campbell more or less agrees with the GPE teacher’s assertion, but for a more nuanced reason that she feels she can never directly say to him: “Because the way you teach your classes will not allow him to be successfully integrated!” Ms. Campbell believes that successful integration requires that GPE be taught so that all students can learn their individualized goals and objectives, but also experience integration in a manner that allows the students to perceive their participation as enjoyable, successful, and safe. In order to successfully integrate Lamar, Mr. Jacobs would need to improve his teaching style and approach, rather than expect Lamar to simply integrate himself into the pre-established environment. Further, she believes that having an organized and established class structure is a prerequisite for integration to be appropriate; this is not something that characterizes Mr. Jacobs’s GPE.

To illustrate improper integration in her conversations with Mrs. Kennedy, Ms. Campbell often highlights Lindsay’s experiences in GPE. Lindsay, a third grader with a visual impairment, was receiving APE services in the self-contained placement until about a month ago, when Mrs. Kennedy convinced Lindsay’s parents that their child was being integrated in most of her other subjects. “So why not GPE?” the special educator would reason. At the time, Ms. Campbell had been at Sunnyside for only a few months, she knew that Lindsay was making remarkable strides with her motor skill development, but even then, the APE specialist was still hesitant with the placement change. However, as a new, nontenured employee at the school, she had relented. Ms. Campbell, acting as a consultant, now watches Lindsay struggle in GPE. The APE specialist would do her best to provide assistance and suggestions to Mr. Jacobs but often thinks to herself, this is like trying to plug a five-foot hole in the side of a boat with your thumb. Instead, Lindsay spends much of GPE tense, bracing for the next time she is inadvertently struck by a ball or another student. Many GPE classes are characterized by Lindsay superficially participating in activities, unless she can convince Mr. Jacobs that she should not participate that day because activities might be too dangerous for her. Mr. Jacobs regularly complies with these requests. Not surprisingly, Ms. Campbell has quickly noted that Lindsay is not progressing in skill development at a similar rate to that which she experienced in the self-contained class–in fact, it appeared that the student was only making slight motoric gains, if any. “Ms. Campbell, when can we go back to APE? I miss my friends” is Lindsay’s popular refrain after particularly tough GPE experiences.

In a rare moment of solidarity, Ms. Campbell and Mr. Jacobs meet with Mrs. Kennedy to persuade the special educator to advocate for Lindsay’s return to the self-contained placement. But entrenched in her philosophical perspective on inclusion, Mrs. Kennedy instead enthusiastically offers more support: “How about I send another paraeducator to help? Once Lamar is added to th...