August 31, 2026
By Eric Hollister Williams, Communications & Marketing Advisor
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast.
Learning all we can about our new students can be daunting in these first weeks of school. We may have paperwork that tells a story, colleagues with their own perspectives to share, and families we get to meet for the first time. But when it comes to meeting learners and their developmental needs, the best source of information might be the students themselves.
This week we’ve arrived at D in the ABCDEs of Learner Needs: Developmental Appropriateness.
Many students and educators are starting new grades, and there’s no better time to begin the process of understanding where each learner is in their educational and developmental journey than right now.
In this week’s Hooray for Monday podcast, Inspired Teaching Founder and President Aleta Margolis talks about how achieving developmental appropriateness is about finding that “sweet spot” where work is not so difficult that it becomes frustrating or uninteresting, but not so easy that learners aren’t being challenged to develop new skills and grow.
She suggests finding that sweet spot doesn’t have to be a mystery. Rather than constructing what we think a student needs, why not ask them directly? Is this too hard? Is it too easy? What would make it less challenging? What might spark new ideas and creativity?
While many students may be surprised that you’ve asked for their insights about their own learning, doing so signals a sense of respect – that their thoughts, ideas, and expertise about their own minds and learning are valued.
As Aleta explains, “Think about developmental appropriateness as a doorway to curiosity.
- What’s on my kids’ minds?
- What are they capable of today?
- What might they be capable of tomorrow?
- What are they capable of individually and as a group?
If you ask such questions on a regular basis, both in your head and out loud to the kids, you’re going to set your kids up to thrive, and you’re going to set yourself up to thrive.”
2026 ABCDE Resource of the Week
Teaching about Developmental Appropriateness
Helping our students understand that their learning takes place on a continuum can give them the perspective to stick with a challenge or seek support when things are too hard. These reflection sheets teach them about Developmental Appropriateness, first in the context of the steps we take to learn new things, and then through the lens of Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). We also have an engaging classroom activity you can try related to ZPD that can inspire some good conversation.
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
