Learning materials design

Most bad worksheets are not wrong. They are unusable: the instruction assumes a reading level above the skill being practiced, the page asks the student to hold three things in mind at once, or the difficulty jumps in a place the author could not see because the author already knows the answer.

The instruction is the hardest part of the page

A worksheet is used by a child, often without an adult reading it to them, and frequently by a parent who did not see the lesson. The instruction has to survive that.

Two constraints that conflict and have to be resolved deliberately:

• The instruction's reading level must sit below the skill being practiced. A second-grade math page whose directions need third-grade reading is a reading test with numbers on it. The child who fails it may have no trouble with the math.
• The instruction must be complete. "Solve" does not say whether to show work, what form the answer takes, or what to do with the remainder.