Coreen often arrives smiling and eager to our 10th-grade criminal-justice classroom in our rural high school. But when content moves too fast or there is a need for background knowledge she's still building, her focus shifts rapidly. Coreen is autistic. She works hard, yet she struggles with abstract language and sustained attention during long discussions.

During a recent discussion about criminal law, Coreen used a color-coded tool we built together to cite two facts and explain why a third was weaker--her clearest argument yet. As I facilitated the whole-class debate--setting the pace, demonstrating how to weigh evidence, and cueing think time--my co-teacher worked with Coreen and a small peer group to pre-teach terms (like "attenuation"), check comprehension with quick signals, and ca

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