This is how I will use developmental principles to meet students where they are….

Using developmental principles is necessary in almost any curriculum because it fits the specific age and developmental process of a child. To be developmentally appropriate is to use the proper curriculum. There are many ways we can use developmental principles to meet the needs of the students where they are. One main way to use developmental principles is for students going through puberty during middle school. To be developmentally appropriate to the students you must take into consideration the physical and mental changes they are going through and adjust to them. You could talk about the changes that the students are going through and assure them that it is a natural process of growing up. That is one way of directly approaching the developmental changes of students. One way you can include it in the curriculum is by adjusting to their cognitive development or the level they are at in school to meet their needs. This means that you have to adjust the complexity and toughness of a lesson based on where the students are developmentally. A 6th grader’s cognitive development is going to be different from a freshman in high school so you must accommodate to their skill level.

For my certification in education which is grades 4-12, there are many different developmental principles when it comes to meeting where the students are. I am however more focused on teaching at the highschool level which pertains to a different way of approaching their needs developmentally. Developmentally high schoolers are the farthest developmentally in their adolescence, however, there is still major change going for students. It is important to foster a positive environment within the classroom and still help form positive ways of life to help these students become successful adults in the future. These students are still finding their own identity as they go through high school and by being a positive role model you can help these students have a healthy identity development. The way you are going to approach high schoolers who are going to be different than younger students within the curriculum is that you have to be able to teach complex subjects because they are farther on their developmental pathway. On the developmental pathway high school students are farther in prior knowledge and can intake more complex thought from lessons. High School students can break down tougher lessons within school. 

Social status is also a very prevalent and important thing for high school students within their developmental level. As a teacher, we must understand how social status affects students and their ability to succeed in school. This is followed by maintaining a healthy environment within the classroom to make sure that these stressors of social status and change won’t affect their academic performance.

There are many different aspects of development that teachers must adjust to at each grade level. However, we must teach at an appropriate developmental level to ensure students receive the correct curriculum and instruction.