Presentation is a relevant aspect in any instructional material that we review. Nevertheless, as we review instructional materials, we must be alert not to believe presentation stands as the priority, over content, as some publishers might erroneously believe. Thus, we must focus on presentations that align instructional components, organization, readability, and ease of use, in the student resources as well as in the teacher resources.
STUDENT RESOURCES
Students who find material that is not well integrated, or the items are very simple, consider it dull, even when it contains colorfull illustrations and it is easy to read.
Attractive features may be misleading.
Some features are used to highlight certain information that may be confused with main ideas, when they are not, or they emphasize questions that help to remember, and not to think or apply the subject. That is why they may be misleading the students.
Effective Instructional Materials Integrating Reference Aids
These materials include glossaries, maps, graphic organizers, pictures, index, bibliography. If they have clear instructions and are well integrated to the student materials and the teacher´s guide, they may be effective.
Teacher Resources
Usually, teacher resources include a teacher guide with much information where the publishers take almost all the decisions in tegards to planning, evaluating, testing, activities, and others. Due to this is the relevance of evaluating the quality and significance of those decisions.
The following is a list of the most important aspects we have to evaluate.
-Easy to use components and materials
-Materials to support lesson planning
-Guidance on teaching procedures
-Enough relevant content related to each topic
-Suggested individualized study for diverse learning abilities/disabilities and learning styles
-Resources to build effective relationships with parents and members of the community, reinforcing values and ethical items
-Cultural highlights
Alignment
The instructional materials must be aligned with the syllabus as well as one to the other. Teachers must evaluate the following.
-Alignment within instructional components in general
-Alignment within student materials
-Alignment within teachers materials
Organization of Instructional Materials
Order and clarity are significantly important throughout the format and structure of the instructional materials. Any teacher must be able to use the instructional materials easily as long as the contents are placed in a way that they are well organized and easy to read, through the use of visuals and typographical design. Clearly organized materials support the following.
-Access to content
-Visible structure and format
-Objectives or content outline aid content organization
-Visual cues signal content and organization
-Layout organizes content with sensible groupings and consistent structure
A logical organization of content and activities results in an effective teaching/ learning process. It must be unified and consistent to support the flow of information.
Readability of Instructional Materials
Readability of instructional materials depends on narative and visual elements that make the material attractive to the students, easy to understand, and appropriate to his/her abilities. Thus, it depends on the following.
-Coherent language style
-Typographycal presentation features
-font style forms and emphasizes words and ideas
-Text spacing separates and groups words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections
-Simplicity avoids extraneous and redundant information and focuses attention
-High, but not sharp, contrast supports separation of letters, words, and sections
-Text and visual focus information and concepts
Teacher Resources
Usually, teacher resources include a teacher guide with much information where the publishers take almost all the decisions in tegards to planning, evaluating, testing, activities, and others. Due to this is the relevance of evaluating the quality and significance of those decisions.
The following is a list of the most important aspects we have to evaluate.
-Easy to use components and materials
-Materials to support lesson planning
-Guidance on teaching procedures
-Enough relevant content related to each topic
-Suggested individualized study for diverse learning abilities/disabilities and learning styles
-Resources to build effective relationships with parents and members of the community, reinforcing values and ethical items
-Cultural highlights
Alignment
The instructional materials must be aligned with the syllabus as well as one to the other. Teachers must evaluate the following.
-Alignment within instructional components in general
-Alignment within student materials
-Alignment within teachers materials
Organization of Instructional Materials
Order and clarity are significantly important throughout the format and structure of the instructional materials. Any teacher must be able to use the instructional materials easily as long as the contents are placed in a way that they are well organized and easy to read, through the use of visuals and typographical design. Clearly organized materials support the following.
-Access to content
-Visible structure and format
-Objectives or content outline aid content organization
-Visual cues signal content and organization
-Layout organizes content with sensible groupings and consistent structure
A logical organization of content and activities results in an effective teaching/ learning process. It must be unified and consistent to support the flow of information.
Readability of Instructional Materials
Readability of instructional materials depends on narative and visual elements that make the material attractive to the students, easy to understand, and appropriate to his/her abilities. Thus, it depends on the following.
-Coherent language style
-Typographycal presentation features
-font style forms and emphasizes words and ideas
-Text spacing separates and groups words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections
-Simplicity avoids extraneous and redundant information and focuses attention
-High, but not sharp, contrast supports separation of letters, words, and sections
-Text and visual focus information and concepts
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