The most practical way I know to apply general norms of development in any classroom is to create a chronological listing of your class from oldest to youngest at the beginning of the school year in September. This listing immediately shows you the range of chronological ages you will be teaching.

There, of course, is not necessarily a direct correlation between chronological or birthday age and a child’s developmental level, either physically, intellectually, emotionally, or socially, but, with the exception of developmental screening in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten, teachers seldom have access to developmental data on children in their classes, except in a case where there is concern about special needs a particular child may have.

Once you have your list created according to birthdays, the next thing you’ll want to establish is the mode of the class–the place where most birthdays cluster, on a given date–say on September 1st. In the sample 4th grade chart (Figure 1), you can count the birthdays to see that the greatest number of children are at 9 years, 7 months, on September 1st (7 out of 22) with another 4 at 9 years, 9 months, on the same date. This means the birthday “cluster” in this classroom–which represents about half the children–is close to the mode.

What do you do now?

• Plan for a fourth grade class beginning the year with mostly older 9-year-old 10-year-old developmental characteristics. Look back at the classroom implications for these ages. Think about your room arrangement and about the curriculum activities that will most engage this class as a whole. Think about potential problem areas, especially socially, for the much younger children in the classroom as well as the older.
• Think about how the class will be different in the second half of the year when most (nearly three-fourths by March) will be exhibiting ten-year-old developmental characteristics with one or two possibly exhibiting eleven-year-old characteristics. You’ll need to adjust approaches to classroom organization, instruction, classroom responsibilities, homework, and many other areas by paying attention to shifting development. Teachers who do not pay attention to the developmental shifts within a given year often wonder why they have more trouble with a class in the second half of the year or may comment about how pleased they are with how much the children have grown under their tutelage. But more attention to changing their own practices according to developmental needs (based on the changing needs of the birthday cluster) can help any teacher make a little more progress with the class as a whole.
• Consider the potential needs of the children on the younger and older ends of the spectrum and how you will accommodate them as you see how they fit in the mix of the classroom. Creating a histogram, or vertical bar graph, on September 1 and March 1, as shown in Figure 2, can be a useful way to help you keep in mind the developmental needs of the class before you.