Properly planning and evaluating materials for instruction requires an assessment of (a) students’ prior knowledge, (b) students’ interests and experiences, and (c) the accessibility of content matter.  Evaluating students’ prior knowledge, including both academic knowledge and knowledge of the world around them, determines the point at which the teacher begins a lesson.  The teacher must know her students’ literacy skills, learning styles, cognitive development, and so forth in order to choose what to teach and how to teach it in a matter best suited for her students. Evaluating students interests and experiences gives the teacher clues as to what material may be most relevant in the lives of her students.  The teacher would not want to choose content matter that did not inherently grasp the students’ interest. 

Some things that I like to use to in the process of planning and evaluating materials that are appropriate for instruction include the following: the Stroop Test (see sidebar), which assesses students' left/right brain activity; the VARK learning style inventory, which determines whether students are audio, visual, or kinesthetic learners; Multiple Intelligences, which more specifically isolates students' preferred method of absorbing and expressing knoweldge; and the Secret Language of Birthdays, through which I learn about the students' personalities. Of course, I also incorporate a reading comprehension pre-assessment of some kind as well. Sometimes I even use brain teasers and optical illusions as a fun way to assess advanced critical thinking skills. Based in part on all of this information, I plan and evaluate materials for instruction.

Also, evaluation of the content matter itself, specifically reading materials, is crucial when planning for instruction. This is especially true for an English/Language Arts instructor, who must assess both the reading level and value for teach literary concepts, an especially difficult task when many students read below grade level.  My approach to evaluating texts is to consider three things: the complexity of words and sentences, whether the content is age appropriate, and how to get my students excited to read it.  It is also important to evaluate whether texts align with state and national curriculum standards. This is important because these standards are essentially a list of the content of local and national standardized tests.  In a Title I school, especially in the wake of NCLB, which makes money from the federal government contingent upon progress made on these tests each year, it is crucial students can do above average on these tests. 

In short, in my experience as a teacher I have found that when you adapt the curriculum to fit the needs of your students that the students respond more willingly and intrinsically motivated to accomplish the learning objective.