Rebecca Lytle

Getting it Right from the start: Employing the Universal Design for Learning Approach to Your Curriculum

JOPERD • Volume 79 No. 2 • February 2008 F ernando is in sixth grade and has Down syndrome. He is in a class with Angelica who has a visual impairment, Justin who has exercise-induced asthma, and Valinda and Valerie who recently moved to the United States from Russia. Valinda and Valerie speak little English and have limited experience with most games and activities that are played in the United States. Their teacher, Mrs. Schedlin, developed her lesson plans for the hockey lead-up unit that included the lesson warm-up, the lesson focus, a game, and then closure. This year, she had these fi ve students with unique needs, as well as others with various abilities. She added modifi cations at the end of her lesson plan, such as using a Frisbee instead of a puck for Fernando, having a trained peer-tutor and a beeping ball for Angelica, using stations with specifi c task analysis for Valinda, Valerie, and Fernando (and supporting these students with two paraeducators). The fi rst lesson of the unit looked like chaos. All the students were involved in activity, and Mrs. Schedlin ran around between instruction to give out additional equipment to other students who also wanted to use the Frisbee or beeping ball for hockey. She only had enough of the “alternative equipment” for the students who “needed” it. Mrs. Schedlin then realized that some students did not even have previous experience with hockey, and she had to re-think her lesson. By the end of lesson six, several students had created their own game in a corner of the gymnasium; two students were having a sword fi ght with the hockey sticks; Valinda and Valerie were batting a ball back and forth like baseball; Justin and three others were throwing and catching the Frisbee; and Fernando and Angelica were on the fl oor with a paraeducator rolling the beeping ball to each other. Mrs. Schedlin was beside herself. Where did she go wrong? Mrs. Schedlin called the adapted physical education consultant for the district, Ms. Collier, who came to observe Mrs. Schedlin’s class. Ms. Collier commented that Mrs. Schedlin had the right ideas, but delivered the lesson in a reactionary way. Ms. Collier said that many teachers are taught to include individuals with differences as an afterthought. She encouraged Mrs. Schedlin to think of all the needs of the students and identify the objectives of the lesson before planning it to include all students. Getting it Right from the Start: Employing the Universal Design for Learning Approach to Your Curriculum

What Is a Highly Qualified Adapted Physical Education Teacher

JOPERD • Volume 81 No. 2 • February 2010 O n January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law. This act required statewide accountability for student performance in reading and math, greater flexibility for parents to make choices for their children if they attended a “low performing” school, and improved teacher quality. The requirement for better teacher quality has resulted in state guidelines to define what constitutes a “highly qualified” teacher. However, the U.S. Department of Education (2005) requires that, at a minimum, “highly qualified” teachers have a four-year college degree, a full state teaching license, and demonstrated knowledge of the subject they are teaching, either by having a college major in the subject or by passing an examination. State and national guidelines currently exist for teachers of “core” academic areas, but not for physical education or adapted physical education (APE) teachers. To address this, NASPE published a position paper that describes the qualities and characteristics of a “highly qualified” physical education teacher (Napper-Owen, Marston, Van Volkinburg, Afeman, & Brewer, 2008; Van Volkinburg, Marston, & Napper-Owen, 2008). The development of a comparable position paper for APE teachers began in 2006 at the AAHPERD National Convention and Exposition. The Adapted Physical Activity Council (APAC) of the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation (AAPAR) formed a committee to develop a position paper defining the term “highly qualified” as it applies to the discipline of adapted physical education. The committee included current APE teachers and university faculty from APE teacher preparation programs. A draft of guidelines was written and shared with the committee for ideas and feedback. This draft was then edited and sent out to public school teachers for review and was then reviewed in an open forum at the following AAHPERD convention in 2007. Relevant suggestions were accepted, the document was edited, and the committee reviewed it again. A final draft was completed in May 2007 and received final approval from the AAHPERD executive board in winter of 2008. The full version of this document is available on the AAPAR web site (AAPAR & National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities [NCPERID], 2007) and is supported by both APAC and NCPERID. Table 1 describes the four minimum criteria for the training of a highly qualified adapted physical educator. The purpose of publishing this document was to inform public school administrators in special education and physical education about the requisite knowledge and skills that a highly qualified adapted physical educator must possess in order What Is a Highly Qualified Adapted Physical Education Teacher?

Teaching Collaboration and Consultation Skills to Preservice Adapted Physical Education Teachers

W hat collaboration and consultation content knowledge and skillsdo preservice adapted physical education (APE) specialists need in order to work effectively with other professionals? Historically, training programs in adapted physical education have done an excellent job preparing prospective teachers to work directly with students with disabilities. However, the increased use of inclusive practices has created the need for professional preparation programs to train preservice teachers in adult-to-adult interactions, communication, and facilitation skills. The purpose of this article is to provide instructional activities that are directed specifically toward strengthening the collaboration and consultation skills of preservice adapted physical education teachers.

Parental Expectations About Adapted Physical Education Services

The purpose of this study was to characterize the expectations of parents of children with disabilities regarding adapted physical education services. Participants (N = 10) were parents of children with disabilities. Parents participated in one-on-one semistructured interviews. Transcripts were analyzed through a constant comparative method. Three parental themes emerged from the analysis: (a) importance placed on physical activities, (b) ongoing and frequent communication and collaboration, and (c) teachers’ attributes. The results of this study demonstrated that parents wanted more communication with the adapted physical education teacher, a collaborative working relationship, attendance of the adapted physical education teacher at Individual Education Program meetings, and normalcy for their child.

Communicating with Hispanic Parents of Children with and without Disabilities.

JOPERD • Volume 80 No. 4 • April 2009 T he current culture in the United States is both ethnically and socially diverse, and Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority population in the United States. In fact, from 1980 to 2005 the Hispanic population in the United States grew 192 percent, from 14.6 million to 42.7 million (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2007). Statistical projections indicate that by the year 2050, Hispanics living in the United States will no longer be considered a minority group in states like Texas and California (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Statistics reveal that, in California, the largest student population is Hispanic (46.7%) followed by non-Hispanic Caucasians (32.9%). In the 2006–2007 academic year, 47 percent of the students in special education were Hispanic, an increase of six percent from just five years before (California Department of Education, 2008). This same trend is anticipated in other states as well (table 1). Many professions are being affected by this growing diversity, particularly the teaching profession. Adapted physical education (APE) and physical education (PE) teachers are no exception. Many Hispanic children with and without disabilities are receiving physical education services in school districts throughout the United States. Teachers often struggle to identify ways to communicate with Hispanic children and their families. Consequently, some Hispanic families are unfamiliar with the benefits and services available to their children through special education programs (Columna et al., 2008). For this reason, it is important for educators to have linguistic competence. Linguistic competence is defined as the capacity of an organization and its personnel to communicate effectively and to convey information in a manner that is easily understood by diverse audiences, including persons with limited English proficiency, those who have low literacy skills or are not literate, and individuals with disabilities (Goode & Jones, 2006). Because of potential communication and cultural barriers, it is critical for teachers to become linguistically competent and to find ways to establish direct and ongoing lines of communication with parents in order to ensure their understanding and knowledge of the full array of services and programs that are available to their children. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide communication strategies that may assist APE and PE teachers to work more effectively with Hispanic parents of children with and without disabilities. An improvement in communication may help teachers to establish positive rapport while helping Hispanic families to become an integral part of the physical education program. The authors conducted research with the Hispanic population because it is the largest minority population in the United States, but the strategies stated in this article can be applied to other minority groups as well. It is important to note that cultural differences do exist among different groups; therefore, these strategies may not be suitable to all non-Englishspeaking parents. Communicating with Hispanic Parents of Children with and without Disabilities