Materials
The materials used in this study included the following: a
binder with three content units of SL plans (e.g., Life Cycle
unit, Rock Cycle unit, and Senses unit), student assessments,
vocabulary words and pictures, concept statements
for each lesson, and any science-related materials needed
for the lessons (e.g., rocks, minerals, life cycle chart, food
items for tasting and smelling). All materials used, with theexception of the guided notes portion of the intervention,
were from the Early Science curriculum (Jimenez, Knight,
& Browder, in press). The Early Science curriculum is a
research-based science curriculum, aligned to national science
content standards, for students with severe disabilities.
The curriculum uses an inquiry-based science approach.
The content was selected and validated by national experts
in science education, and the instructional strategies embedded
in the scripted curriculum (including explicit instruction,
model-lead-test, constant time delay, and least intrusive
prompting) were selected by special education experts
based on their sound research base for teaching this population
of students. For the last three lessons of each unit that
were conducted under the scripted lessons plus guided
notes (SLs + GNs) condition, the teacher was supplied with
a presentation tablet with the teacher model of guided notes
supported by picture symbols and guided notes handouts
for each participant. Each lesson plan was 7 to 10 pages in
length and included lesson objectives, a list of materials
needed, detailed scripts for the teacher, student performance
expectations and response options, and strategies for
prompting/feedback. All lesson plans were designed to
include the essential components of inquiry (i.e., engage,
investigate, describe, explain, report). In addition, the second
and third units included a KWHL (what do you Know,
what do you Want to know, How will you find out, what did
you Learn) graphic organizer (Browder et al., 2010;
Jimenez, Browder, & Courtade, 2009) as a component of
the SL plans. A poster of the KWHL chart was displayed on
the white board and was completed by the teacher and students
during the lesson (e.g., students placed the learned
concept statement from the lesson under the “L” for what
they learned on the KWHL chart).
For Jackie, who exhibited echolalia in response to verbally
presented open-ended questions (e.g., responding
“live” when prompted, “Name three things that plants and
animals need to live”), an additional material was included
to assist her with communication across all three units. The
material included a unit choice board of 18 choices (each
accompanied with a picture) that reflected all of the possible
answers for the open-ended questions in each unit.