Overview
In order to develop, maintain, and strengthen the sense of deep community necessary for a thriving and safe classroom environment, Humanities Amped employs restorative practices. Restorative practices are approaches to building communities of trust and resolving conflict that have gained traction over the last decade in U.S. schools as a response to the overreach of school discipline policies, which have functioned to push too many students out of school (Fronius, Persson, Guckenburg, Hurley, 2016). These practices, which are also sometimes referred to as “restorative justice,” draw from circle processes with roots in Indigenous communities found in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Restorative practices center relationships and prioritize their repair over the isolated use of traditional punitive measures in instances of conflict and harm. According to the International Institute for Restorative Practices (2009), “Simply put, to be ‘restorative’ means to believe that decisions are best made and conflicts are best resolved by those most directly involved in them. The restorative practices movement seeks to develop good relationships and restore a sense of community in an increasingly disconnected world” (Costello, Wachtel & Wachtel, p. 7).
In Humanities Amped classrooms, we have found that Restorative Practices create ways for us to ritualize community-building, develop a shared ownership of community-building because students are able to learn and lead the processes themselves, and importantly, take shared responsibility when harmful things happen and we need to work together to make things right.
In Humanities Amped classrooms, we have found that Restorative Practices create ways for us to ritualize community-building, develop a shared ownership of community-building because students are able to learn and lead the processes themselves, and importantly, take shared responsibility when harmful things happen and we need to work together to make things right.
There are many training resources available for teachers interested in implementing restorative practices, so it is most helpful for us to point you in the direction of some resources. For instance, this video from the International Institute of Restorative Practices provides a helpful overview. In this section, we offer a snapshot overview of some of the methods that make up restorative practices, and connect you to further reading to develop your understanding.
RESTORATIVE CIRCLES
Restorative Circles OVERVIEW & GUIDELINES
Circles allow us to build community with one another to help establish classroom norms of respect, safety, trust, and inclusion, and can be used in a variety of ways (e.g. check-ins, content delivery, to address general classroom behavior, etc.). As the name suggests, it is important that participants sit in a true circle together so that all individuals can see and be seen. It is also important to review the "Circle Guidelines" when you engage your students in this process. To learn more about the application of circles in Amped in-person, virtual, and hybrid spaces, we invite you to read this installment of our Beloved Community series.
Circle Guidelines
SPEAK FROM THE HEART
We honor the community by honestly sharing our stories
LISTEN FROM THE HEART
We honor each other when we listen without judgement
TRUST YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO SAY
Because we are committed to listening deeply, we will not "rehearse" our own responses while others are speaking
SAY JUST ENOUGH
We will not talk just to fill the space, but we will take the space we need
RESPECT THE TALKING PIECE
We will use a talking piece to ensure we speak one at a time
HONOR THE CHOICE TO PASS AND ALWAYS GIVE THOSE WHO PASS A SECOND CHANCE TO SPEAK
Honoring the choice to pass is one way we practice trust within the circle
We honor the community by honestly sharing our stories
LISTEN FROM THE HEART
We honor each other when we listen without judgement
TRUST YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO SAY
Because we are committed to listening deeply, we will not "rehearse" our own responses while others are speaking
SAY JUST ENOUGH
We will not talk just to fill the space, but we will take the space we need
RESPECT THE TALKING PIECE
We will use a talking piece to ensure we speak one at a time
HONOR THE CHOICE TO PASS AND ALWAYS GIVE THOSE WHO PASS A SECOND CHANCE TO SPEAK
Honoring the choice to pass is one way we practice trust within the circle
Circle Protocols
USE CIRCLES PROACTIVELY MORE OFTEN THAN REACTIVELY
In our experience, the most important protocol for design is ensuring that 80% of your circles are designed to build positive community and prevent harm while 20% of circles respond to harm. When communities only use circles reactively rather than proactively, they become associated with harm rather than with positive community. In our experience, harm is exacerbated when circles are mostly held as a method of response.
HONOR THE CHOICE TO PASS
The choice to pass builds trust in the community and confidence in the students. Even the choice to pass is a demonstration of agency, and through this demonstration participants build confidence. Similarly, circle facilitators build trust when they honor passing. Though it seems counterintuitive, we have learned that allowing passing builds the trust needed to take more risks and show up in the community.
POSE CHALLENGES TO SHARE RESPONSIBILITY
Another protocol we have found effective within Humanities Amped is the process of posing a challenge to the group. Providing a challenge (e.g. 100% participation at least once, starting with lower stakes and building up to higher stakes over time and with practice) helps generate engagement and reinforce the circle’s fundamental aspect of shared power: challenges make visible that the students and teacher together, not the teacher alone, are responsible for the community. Throughout the circle the facilitator should remind the participants of this challenge, and be sure to celebrate whatever successes it generates. Ultimately, this challenge centers communal participation instead of positioning students always in the space of accountability.
IN VIRTUAL SPACES, WE COUNT MANY FORMS OF PARTICIPATION AS VALID
In Amped classrooms, we honor chat responses equally to verbal responses because we see the chat as a tool for accessibility. One strategy for drafting a speaker order we have found success with is to provide a chat-based, low stakes check-in question. This practice demonstrates to participants that the chat will be honored, and the order in which participants respond to the check check-in becomes the circle order. While we ask students to consider the positive community effects of seeing each other on camera, we give students the choice to turn their own camera on or off. We take this approach because virtual circles require significantly more trust than in person circles, and we have found success and quality with these choices. To learn more facilitation strategies for virtual spaces, see the Amped Facilitator's Guide to Online Engagement.
USE CHECK IN QUESTIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY
These resources provide a variety of engaging questions to build relationships and connection between and among participants and facilitators.
YOUTH AS RESTORATIVE CIRCLE FACILITATORS
Humanities Amped has offered elective classes in restorative practices that allow students to hone their facilitation skills through acting as restorative circle leaders for other classes. Once these practices are internalized, students see the benefits and apply them to their own lives. For example, one student asked her teacher for the copy of the facilitation questions so that she could lead a circle in between two quarreling friends. Another student stated, “I think I need a restorative conference with myself!”, so they independently filled out their own reflection in restorative practice format. Another easy way to implement youth facilitators is to make restorative circle facilitators a classroom job (see Youth Development: Democratic Participation) and involve youth in planning and leading circles.
In our experience, the most important protocol for design is ensuring that 80% of your circles are designed to build positive community and prevent harm while 20% of circles respond to harm. When communities only use circles reactively rather than proactively, they become associated with harm rather than with positive community. In our experience, harm is exacerbated when circles are mostly held as a method of response.
HONOR THE CHOICE TO PASS
The choice to pass builds trust in the community and confidence in the students. Even the choice to pass is a demonstration of agency, and through this demonstration participants build confidence. Similarly, circle facilitators build trust when they honor passing. Though it seems counterintuitive, we have learned that allowing passing builds the trust needed to take more risks and show up in the community.
POSE CHALLENGES TO SHARE RESPONSIBILITY
Another protocol we have found effective within Humanities Amped is the process of posing a challenge to the group. Providing a challenge (e.g. 100% participation at least once, starting with lower stakes and building up to higher stakes over time and with practice) helps generate engagement and reinforce the circle’s fundamental aspect of shared power: challenges make visible that the students and teacher together, not the teacher alone, are responsible for the community. Throughout the circle the facilitator should remind the participants of this challenge, and be sure to celebrate whatever successes it generates. Ultimately, this challenge centers communal participation instead of positioning students always in the space of accountability.
IN VIRTUAL SPACES, WE COUNT MANY FORMS OF PARTICIPATION AS VALID
In Amped classrooms, we honor chat responses equally to verbal responses because we see the chat as a tool for accessibility. One strategy for drafting a speaker order we have found success with is to provide a chat-based, low stakes check-in question. This practice demonstrates to participants that the chat will be honored, and the order in which participants respond to the check check-in becomes the circle order. While we ask students to consider the positive community effects of seeing each other on camera, we give students the choice to turn their own camera on or off. We take this approach because virtual circles require significantly more trust than in person circles, and we have found success and quality with these choices. To learn more facilitation strategies for virtual spaces, see the Amped Facilitator's Guide to Online Engagement.
USE CHECK IN QUESTIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY
These resources provide a variety of engaging questions to build relationships and connection between and among participants and facilitators.
- Questions for Check-Ins: This resource includes excellent questions and context for choosing the best kind of check-in question to match your purpose
- 40 Weird Questions to Ask Your Students to Get to Know Them Better
YOUTH AS RESTORATIVE CIRCLE FACILITATORS
Humanities Amped has offered elective classes in restorative practices that allow students to hone their facilitation skills through acting as restorative circle leaders for other classes. Once these practices are internalized, students see the benefits and apply them to their own lives. For example, one student asked her teacher for the copy of the facilitation questions so that she could lead a circle in between two quarreling friends. Another student stated, “I think I need a restorative conference with myself!”, so they independently filled out their own reflection in restorative practice format. Another easy way to implement youth facilitators is to make restorative circle facilitators a classroom job (see Youth Development: Democratic Participation) and involve youth in planning and leading circles.
Circle Examples & Templates
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CULTURE BUILDING CIRCLE EXAMPLE
DEBRIEF CIRCLE EXAMPLE |
ACADEMIC SKILLS CIRCLE EXAMPLE
GENERAL CIRCLE TEMPLATE |
AMPED UP! EBRPSS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CIRCLE SERIES
During this first video session, participants will learn how to design engaging and interactive circle processes that can be used in person, online, or in hybrid learning environments. In the following videos, participants will observe a model of the check-in circle component which can be used to build positive classroom environments and increase engagements in person, online, or in hybrid learning environments. By the end of the model, participants will be able to design their own check-ins to use to build classroom community and/or to ignite student engagement in academic growth.
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OTHER RESTORATIVE PRACTICE METHODS
Affective Statements and Questions
Affective statements, or statements in which we name the impact others' actions have on us:
- Humanize teachers when used with students
- Can foster empathy, not a perception of weakness
- Center relationship
- When possible, should be made privately, not as a way to publicly shame and should be used with an awareness of how escalation influences clear thinking
Typical REsponseStop teasing Sandy.
Talking during class is inappropriate. You shouldn’t do that. Sit down and be quiet. I don’t want to see you fighting with him. |
Affective StatementIt makes me uncomfortable when I see you teasing Sandy.
I’m frustrated that you aren’t listening to me. I feel sad when you say something like that to John. I get angry when you talk and joke during my lectures. I was shocked to see you hurt Pete. |
Excerpted from Costello, Wachtel & Wachtel (2009), p. 15.
Affective Questions
Affective questions provide space to reflect on the impact of behavior and reveal the natural consequences of our actions. Our list of restorative questions has been adapted from the set of questions provided by the IIRP. When used to facilitate small, impromptu conferences between or among individuals involved in a conflict, these questions allow for separation between the deed from the doer. Although these conferences may be informal, they can still end in commitments as well as plans to follow-up regarding those commitments.
Restorative QuestionsFrom your perspective what happened?
What do you remember thinking at the time? What have you thought about since? Who has been affected by what happened? In what way have they been affected? What feelings or needs are still with you? What do you think needs to happen to make things right? Are you complete? |
Adapted from Teaching Restorative Practices With Classroom Circles
Restorative Conferences (Formal)
These facilitator-led circles in response to harm provide highly-structured opportunity for affected and involved individuals to address the harmful action or behavior. When implemented well, restorative conferences can make a huge difference for students in terms of accountability and student behavior. Conferences sometimes just involve a few people, those who have been directly affected by harmful action or behavior, while other times conferences include a larger number of individuals who have been indirectly or directly affected. See the formal invitation we use for individual or small group conferences here, and an example of a whole-class problem-solving circle here.
A common misunderstanding about using restorative conferences to address wrong-doing is that the conference is itself a consequence for wrongdoing. In fact, a conference facilitates a process for arriving at an understanding of how harm can be repaired. Restorative outcomes (for example, an apology and/or a contract for how to address issues moving forward) sit on a continuum with punitive outcomes (for example, detention or suspension). It is only possible to create restorative solutions when everyone is able to move together willingly to do so; in other words, students who participate in a circle should collaborate with teachers, peers, and other participants to come up with an appropriate consequence that is in addition to participation in the conference. If there is no plan of action coming from a conference, or if affected individuals are unwilling or unable to move forward to create a plan of action, accountability is reduced. It is sometimes necessary to engage punitive discipline if people are unwilling to engage in a restorative conference. One approach does not completely do away with a need for the other, though is should seriously limit the overuse of punitive discipline by resolving conflict at earlier stages.
Additionally, we have witnessed the tension created for a restorative practices classroom in a non-restorative whole school setting. With this disconnect, students and teachers may become frustrated with the inconsistencies of severity of punishments. For example, a student who is habitually tardy could have a restorative conversation with one teacher, using affecting statements and questions, and they could work on an agreement to address the behavior. If the same student is tardy to a teacher who does not take a restorative approach, the student could be written up and sent to the office. These inconsistencies should not deter teachers from incorporating restorative practices in their own classrooms. However, it is important to be transparent about these challenges and talk about them with students.
A common misunderstanding about using restorative conferences to address wrong-doing is that the conference is itself a consequence for wrongdoing. In fact, a conference facilitates a process for arriving at an understanding of how harm can be repaired. Restorative outcomes (for example, an apology and/or a contract for how to address issues moving forward) sit on a continuum with punitive outcomes (for example, detention or suspension). It is only possible to create restorative solutions when everyone is able to move together willingly to do so; in other words, students who participate in a circle should collaborate with teachers, peers, and other participants to come up with an appropriate consequence that is in addition to participation in the conference. If there is no plan of action coming from a conference, or if affected individuals are unwilling or unable to move forward to create a plan of action, accountability is reduced. It is sometimes necessary to engage punitive discipline if people are unwilling to engage in a restorative conference. One approach does not completely do away with a need for the other, though is should seriously limit the overuse of punitive discipline by resolving conflict at earlier stages.
Additionally, we have witnessed the tension created for a restorative practices classroom in a non-restorative whole school setting. With this disconnect, students and teachers may become frustrated with the inconsistencies of severity of punishments. For example, a student who is habitually tardy could have a restorative conversation with one teacher, using affecting statements and questions, and they could work on an agreement to address the behavior. If the same student is tardy to a teacher who does not take a restorative approach, the student could be written up and sent to the office. These inconsistencies should not deter teachers from incorporating restorative practices in their own classrooms. However, it is important to be transparent about these challenges and talk about them with students.
RESTORATIVE PRACTICES RESOURCES
International Institute for Restorative Practices
IIRP Implementation Overview
San Francisco Unified School District online curriculum
Costello, B., Wachtel, J., & Wachtel, T. (2009). The restorative practices handbook for teachers, disciplinarians and administrators. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Costello, B., Wachtel, J., & Wachtel, T. (2010). Restorative circles in schools: Building community and enhancing learning. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Social Discipline Window
Teaching Restorative Practices With Classroom Circles - San Francisco Unified School District Online Curriculum
Implementing Restorative Practices school-wide
Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: A Literature Review
IIRP Implementation Overview
San Francisco Unified School District online curriculum
Costello, B., Wachtel, J., & Wachtel, T. (2009). The restorative practices handbook for teachers, disciplinarians and administrators. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Costello, B., Wachtel, J., & Wachtel, T. (2010). Restorative circles in schools: Building community and enhancing learning. Bethlehem, PA: International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Social Discipline Window
Teaching Restorative Practices With Classroom Circles - San Francisco Unified School District Online Curriculum
Implementing Restorative Practices school-wide
Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: A Literature Review
