The booklet presents a rationale for a prescriptive teaching approach and discusses materials appropriate to both the diagnostic and instructional phases of prescriptive teaching. Prescriptive education is defined as an approach to curriculum based upon thorough diagnostic evaluation of a child's specific learning abilities and disabilities. Described are instruments for assessing students' perceptual motor abilities, spelling difficulties, arithmetic difficulties, behavior, speech and language problems, and reading problems. It is recommended that teachers use descriptive data to analyze learning tasks (using either a behavioral approach or analysis of task presentation and response), develop teacher strategies, and establish terminal criteria. To illustrate how teachers may employ varied materials to meet educational objectives, contemporary teaching approaches are reviewed for the following subject areas: reading (basal readers, language experience, the kinesthetic approach, and the phonics approach), arithmetic (programed materials, Montessori materials, and games), spelling (use of typewriters, an alphabetic-phonetic approach, and a developmental program for remedial work), language development (psycholinguistic approach, and expressive approach), perceptual motor development, and behavior change. The importance of evaluation procedures in prescriptive teaching is stressed. (GW)