Restorative Practices

Building Relationships: Restorative Practices

My favorite part of Spring Break is that it gives me a chance to read!  One of this week’s books was Building Equity (Smith, Frey, Pumpian, and Fisher).  There was a section on Restorative Practices which caught my attention, as we prepare for the final months of school.  This is the time of year when behaviors can start to build – and we feel the pressure of these behaviors interfering with the things we still want to get done. So here is something you might want to learn more about. The restorative practice's approach requires those who break school rules to make amends, while also focusing on proactively building the social-emotional capacity of all students.  The focus of the restorative practices work is about learning new behaviors rather than punishing old, and developing students’ motivation to choose new behaviors because they value and want to strengthen positive relationships. Restorative practices build the communication, self-regulation, and the reflective thinking skills of everyone in the school, and promote a proactive and preventative mindset.

The following peace-building practices can be used in your classroom, in order to continue to build relationships and deepen students’ social-emotional learning.

Impromptu Conversations

These short but informative private discussions are an effective way to check in with students, resolve low-level problems before they get bigger, and prompt reflective thinking.  It reminds me of the conversation an adult would have with a student regarding a minor/reteaching incident.

Circles

This well-known restorative practice allows students and teachers to hear one another as they work to find solutions to things that are disrupting learning.  The class sits in a circle so everyone can see each other, and can be used to address behaviors as well as for content conversations. 

• Nonsequential Circle: used to keep the conversation focused and orderly and to ensure that individual voices are heard.  A talking piece is used and only the person holding it can speak. When the speaker is done, he/she passes it to someone else that has volunteered to speak.
• Sequential Circle: used when you want to make sure every member of the group will participate in the conversation.  The talking piece is passed sequentially around the circle, although someone can opt to pass it on without comment. This can be used for low-stakes topics, or for resolving problems in the classroom.  When resolving problems, it is important to focus on the harm done to the relationships within the classroom. When the discussion focuses on relationships, not rules, it builds a shared trust in the classroom.
• Fishbowl Circle: a circle within a circle used to promote a discussion. Members of the outside circle witness what the inner circle (the fishbowl) is discussing.  You may want to leave an empty chair or two in the inner circle so people from the outer circle can jump in and participate at particular points.  After the inner circle finishes the discussion, the circles switch spots, and the outer-circle listeners take their place in the fishbowl.  The inner circle continues the discussion, restating what they heard from the first group.  It may be helpful at the end to have the whole class reconfigure into a nonsequential circle to process the discussion.

Please let me know if you’d like to learn more, or discuss in more detail!

Welcome Back!
Sue