Yoga Teachers Understand Differentiation Better Than I Do

I’ve been thinking about differentiation quite a bit lately. Sometimes, I even think about it when I’m not supposed to--in my yoga class last week, for instance.

I understand that while I am in the midst of my yoga practice I am supposed to be focusing on my breath and allowing my mind to be an empty slate, but since I had spent a considerable amount of time that week talking about differentiated instruction with teachers, pedagogical thoughts kept interrupting my asanas.

Secondary teachers, in particular, often struggle with differentiation. Our colleagues in the elementary schools get it. It’s not uncommon to observe students in an elementary classroom learning at various paces and working on individualized learning trajectories independently or in small groups. At the middle school and high school levels, however, the idea of planning instruction that is responsive to varied levels of academic readiness and ability in one classroom causes some consternation among even the most accomplished teachers.

Unfortunately, there’s not a simple recipe for differentiation. There is no step-by-step process we can easily plug into any educational situation and--voila!--our lesson is differentiated. There are, however, some basic principles that govern many differentiated instruction scenarios.

During my yoga class last week, I realized that my yoga instructor, Nicole, understands those principles and practices them much more skillfully than I.  

Have a clear idea of the goal for the class session. Nicole always has a clear plan in place, a goal for each yoga session. Perhaps it’s a hip-opening class, or maybe we are working on shoulders. Whatever the goal, Nicole has designed a series of poses that will help all the students in the class reach it. In our own classrooms, this translates into having a clear purpose or objective in mind. All students are working toward the same objective, and the teacher has carefully constructed lesson plans and activities to allow the students to reach that end goal. Depending on their readiness, students will take varied paths to reach the goal, and some will make some extra stops along the way to examine the journey in greater depth, but they’re all headed to the same place.  

Assess students’ needs and abilities. As the room fills up before the yoga class, our instructor meets the newbies, introduces herself, and asks if they have any injuries or issues she needs to know about. During the class, she’s been known to shout out, “Those of you with knee issues might want to use a blanket here,” or a similar warning. She knows that I’ve been having problems with my right Achilles’ tendon, so she will offer me tips on how to do certain poses to avoid exacerbating the injury. She knows who’s a beginner and who’s experienced, and she alters her vocabulary and terminology to suit her audience. Because she is aware that we all show up with different levels of experience and bodies that each perform differently, Nicole works hard to know her participants and adjust her plans to help all succeed. Classroom teachers can learn from this example. Before planning and implementing differentiation, we first need to become aware of our students’ strengths and potential growth areas. We can’t meet needs unless we know what the needs are.   

Allow students to set goals for their own learning. As yoga class begins, we sit on our mats and pause a moment to set an intention for the class. Each of us reflects on a goal--mental or physical--to help focus our practice. Allowing our students to set some goals for themselves is a great way to help them focus their learning and measure their achievement.

Provide support for students who are struggling. My hamstrings are chronically tight. Forward bends are tough to execute fully. Sometimes, I stand there sadly with arms dangling six inches away from the floor when I’m asked to bend forward and put my hands on the ground.  Fortunately, our yoga studio comes equipped with foam and cork blocks, cloth straps, specially-designed yoga chairs, and piles of blankets that can be used as props to assist us during class. When she’s leading class, Nicole will often suggest modifications to help the less bendy students get the benefit from particular poses. In my case, I might use a block to “raise” the floor several inches so I can reach it. In our classrooms, teachers do the same thing. We use scaffolding to help students access the content at an appropriately challenging level. Sometimes, we are required by law to make accommodations and modifications for students, but at other times we see a need and address it with an instructional adjustment that gives that student the necessary support. Once the student can handle it on his or her own, we remove the support.     

Allow students to work at their own pace.  There comes a time in nearly every class when we do a number of sun salutations. For those of you unfamiliar, a sun salutation is a series of poses that almost always involves some combination of a downward dog pose, an upward-facing dog, a chaturanga (which is like the lowering part of a pushup and which can be done at varying speeds and at varying heights, stopping at painful points midway to elongate the pain), and other add-ons like leg lifts, hops, or warrior poses. At some point during the sun salutation fun, Nicole will invite us to proceed at our own pace rather than following her verbal cues. This allows the yogis to pace themselves, to add extra flourishes or challenges, or to rest, if needed. During the time allotted for this, some opt to zoom through many salutations while others slow it down and savor the moment. Still others retreat to the safety of child’s pose to recuperate for a few minutes. This is the essence of differentiation: every student working to the best of his or her ability at his or her own pace. We don’t do it for the entire lesson (because then most of us would not be learning anything), but Nicole carves out the appropriate time for this so that all participants in her class get a good workout.

Offer opportunities for exploring the material with greater depth and complexity. We were in some kind of twisty knot pose. Nicole informed us that this was the perfect opportunity for the more advanced students to try a bind, that is, to reach one arm beneath an outstretched leg and join it with another arm that has been wrapped behind the back. Later, we were on the floor doing a forward fold of some sort, and Nicole invited us--if we wished--to tip forward onto our hands, kick our legs out to the side, and attempt an arm balance. Finally, we were given the option to move into a headstand if we were into that sort of thing. Several took Nicole up on her offer each time. I did my best to join my hands in the bind and successfully stood on my head; the arm balance is something I’ve yet to master. Those who chose to stay in the base poses weren’t shamed in any way, but the advanced students were given the opportunity to excel. That, again, is what differentiation is all about.

Don’t make assumptions about abilities. I once walked into another teacher’s class, and she greeted me by saying, “You’re probably going to have a hard time in this class.” She was partly right, but she didn’t know that I was a fairly regular yoga practitioner who could handle most of what she was dishing out. She made me feel largely unwelcome, and I never went back to her class because she made it clear from the start that she wasn’t planning to meet me wherever I was when I walked into the studio.  Nicole doesn’t do that; she welcomes everyone and helps them to feel successful when they take her class. That’s what differentiation is all about: making everyone welcome and helping them feel successful. Furthermore, not every athlete is a brilliant yoga student. Ask the guy who left after ten minutes of class the other night. Similarly, not every student with a label performs according to that label in all situations. A "gifted" student may struggle in your class even more than a student not bearing that designation. Observe their performance, notice their capabilities, and make your differentiation decisions accordingly. 

Push students to go as far as they are capable. As weird is it may sound, Nicole’s yoga class has a safety word. She tells us that yoga, like any high-risk activity, should have a word to let her know when she’s pushed us too far. So if she tries to stretch me further than my body can go, I know that I can scream out, “Crockpot,” and she will back off. She doesn’t assume we can’t do it, and she lets us stretch to our maximum capacity. The same is true in our classrooms; we should let each student soar to his or her maximum capacity and then realize we’ve taken them as far as they can go.

Make the class a safe place to take risks. Crow pose is scary. It requires you to crouch forward, put your knees on your elbows, and balance. There’s a chance you’ll topple forward and all flat on your nose. But Nicole takes some of the fear out of it and encourages us to play around. A time or two, I’ve actually been able to balance for a few seconds. By making our classrooms safe places for our students to push themselves to their  maximum capacities without a risk of looking stupid or failing completely, we achieve unexpected results.   

Offer Choices.  Throughout my yoga class, I’m given choices about what I want to do next. That’s the hallmark of a well-differentiated class. We offer our students options about how they can demonstrate understanding of our objectives. More often than not, the more capable students will select the more challenging--and therefore more interesting--route.

Debrief as an entire class. The differentiated yoga class didn’t look the same for every participant. Some put their legs behind their heads while others of us attempted a modified pigeon pose instead. Regardless of what our paths looked like during the class, we end the journey in the same pose as we pause together to reflect back on the intention we set at the beginning of the session. Nicole will offer some words of wisdom about what we worked on, where we might be headed in future classes, what we might practice on our own at home, and how we need to make sure to drink lots of water that evening to rinse away all the toxins we stirred up. In the same way, a successfully differentiated lesson in class should conclude in a place that allows all students to debrief together. Since everyone worked on the same thing--albeit in different ways--all are prepared to talk about what they learned and whether they met the stated objective.

We can all learn something from the common practices in my yoga class. Though it’s not necessarily easier than forcing everyone to march to the same drummer throughout the class period, providing options for differentiation will help every student engage to his or her fullest potential and will make our classes more interesting and effective than what we were doing before. I challenge you to make that happen.

Namaste.     


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If you want to know more about my yoga teacher, Nicole Payseur, visit her website. She's always got some wisdom to share.