Classroom Management

Is About Restorative
Discipline
These Kids Are Out of Control, Chapter 5
Lauren Frascella, Ramsey Whitaker, Randy Vickery
But, before we start…
Mindfulness Breathing Exercise

❖ About a third of the way into the semester

➢ Stressed? Burnt out? Fed-up?
❖ Today’s presentation topic is quite important for our future careers, so…
➢ We want to make sure we are all mentally, physically, and emotionally ready to take this
presentation head on!
❖ Let’s practice a bit of sustainable teaching, shall we?
Box Breathing Exercise
Thank you for participating!

❖ We hope that gave you all a minute to just check-in with your body, briefly
distancing yourself from the challenges of everyday life, and that you are
even 1% more ready to face the day
❖ Now, with that…
Ch. 5: Classroom Management Is
About Restorative Discipline
“Where justice is denied,
where poverty is enforced,
where ignorance prevails,
and where any one class is
made to feel that society is an
organized conspiracy to
oppress, rob, and degrade
them, neither persons nor
property will be safe."
- Frederick Douglass (Social Reformer,
Abolitionist, Statesman)
Learning Targets
Learning Target #1

I know what restorative discipline is and its benefits.

Learning Target #2

I know how to integrate restorative discipline in my classroom with supportive

methods.
Learning Target #3

I can conclude the chapters of the textbook, and understand the

recommendations made by the authors.
Restorative Discipline 101
What is Restorative Discipline?

❖ “[A] disposition, a mindset, and an approach to discipline that builds upon

the foundational idea that schools are places where students are expected
to make errors and learn from them” (133).
➢ Such errors can be in regard to:
■ Learning of content
■ Learning how to be a good member of the school community
Goals of Restorative Discipline

1) Build positive relationships

2) Reduce and prevent harmful behavior
3) Resolve conflict and hold people accountable
4) Repair harm
5) Address and discuss the needs of the school community
Why Restorative Discipline?

❖ Such strategies can lead “to justice and equity for all children in U.S.
schools” (133-134).
➢ Possibly “provides a means of disrupting and ending years of discriminatory practices that
have adversely affected children in urban schools” (134).
➢ Decreases likelihood of students going into the cradle-to-prison pipeline, while allowing
them to continue to engage in learning opportunities (134).
Benefits of Restorative Discipline

❖ Allows students to…

➢ Come to terms with how their actions may have affected
others
➢ Take responsibility for their actions
➢ Continue to learn and grow
❖ Allows educators to…
➢ Re-conceptualize responses to problematic student
behavior
➢ Learn and grow from conflicts
■ Deviates from the traditional focus of the
“correction” of students
Restorative Discipline &
Restorative Justice
What is Restorative Justice?

❖ “[A] conflict resolution philosophy that informs practice, and it emphasizes

allowing people to come to terms with and remedy harm that they have
caused to others (Wachtel, 2016)” (136).
➢ “Stresses giving those who have been harmed a voice in how to make things right again”
(136).
Restorative Justice Focus Questions

❖ Who has been hurt in this situation?

❖ What are their needs?
❖ Whose obligations are these needs?
❖ What are the causes of this situation?
❖ Who has a stake in this situation?
❖ What is the appropriate process to involve stakeholders in an effort to
address causes and put things right for everyone involved?
Benefit of Restorative Justice

❖ Well-aligned with the concept of public education:

➢ “Moves students whose behavior harms themselves or others toward the support structures
that can help them make better future choices instead of excluding them and pushing them
away” (136).
Restorative
Discipline is
rooted in
Restorative
Justice
Restorative Discipline…

❖ Is a Restorative Justice approach to discipline in schools

❖ Is a relationship-oriented approach to managing behavior in schools
➢ Alternative to punitive discipline system that removes students from a classroom and/or
school community
■ Cradle-to-prison pipeline
❖ Stresses that students are members of a school community and that their
actions affect other community members
Methods of Restorative
Discipline
3 Methods to Support Restorative Discipline

Conferences

Circle Processes

Affective Language
Method #1: Affective Language

❖ Defined as “[language] that genuinely expresses feelings or emotions related

to specific behaviors or actions of others” (139).
❖ Foundation of the pyramid
❖ These foundational interactions can be used in an ongoing and seamless
way in classrooms and school environments to serve as a constant
reminder to students that they are part of a community at school.
❖ Types:
➢ Affective Statements
➢ Affective Questions
Affective Statements

❖ Goals:
➢ Help students understand how their actions have affected others
➢ Building emotional intelligence and empathy
❖ Steps of Use:
➢ Self-identify how you are feeling or how you were affected by the behavior
➢ Self-identify the specific action or behavior your are responding to
➢ Bring together Steps 1 and 2 in an authentic expression of how you are feeling and how you
were affected and the specific behaviors you are reinforcing or redirecting
Affective Questions

❖ Engages students more fully than Affective Statements

➢ Prompts students to reflect upon how their actions may have affected others
❖ Allows discursive exchange that can lead to deep understandings of the
situation and the people involved in the conflict
❖ Examples:
➢ What happened?
➢ What were you thinking of at the time?
➢ What have you thought about since?
➢ Who has been affected by what you have done?
➢ In what way have they been affected?
➢ What do you think you need to do to make things right?
Affective Questions Cont.

❖ In addition to redirecting a single student’s behavior, they can also be used

to resolve conflicts between students
❖ Examples:
➢ What did you think when you realized what had happened?
➢ What impact has this incident had on you and others?
➢ What has been the hardest thing for you?
➢ What do you think needs to happen to make things right?
Method #2: Circle Processes

❖ Middle of the pyramid

❖ A distinctive kind of space for restorative dialogue
❖ Can be used either proactively or reactively to…
➢ Strengthen relationships
➢ Discuss issues that affect school community members
➢ Resolve interpersonal conflicts
Method #3: Conferences

❖ Top of pyramid
❖ Teachers can use conferences to help students who have broken
relationships or who are exhibiting signs of personal crisis
❖ Use of conferences in pre-K–12 classrooms can afford growth and learning,
both for the students who benefit from this classroom management
approach and for the educators who implement it
Conferences Cont.

❖ Restorative conferences are designed to help students and their families

restore broken relationships
❖ Conferencing in schools typically involves only the affected parties, school
personnel, and some family members of involved students
➢ This is the main distinction between Conferences and Circle Processes, which involve more
community members
Discussion Exercise
Which method of Restorative Discipline should be
employed in this situation?
Directions:
Read the situation and, given what you just
learned about the 3 Methods of Restorative
Discipline, discern which method you think
would work best for the given situation and why.
Situation:
A student has shown up to class late the last
three days of the school week. The following
Monday, the student comes back with
complaints because their grade has been
dropped.
What should the instructor do next, i.e., which
method of Restorative Discipline should be
employed to respond to this situation?
Get in groups of two or three people and
discuss.
Implementation of Restorative
Discipline
Keys to Implementation of Restorative Discipline

❖ A building-level approach as opposed to a classroom-level approach

➢ Restorative discipline is more effective when implemented by an entire school community,
not just one teacher
❖ Buy-in from the entire staff
➢ Most readily accomplished through extensive and ongoing staff training in restorative
discipline where staff learn about the effects and influences of the shift in practices
❖ A clear implementation plan
➢ Study of Denver Public Schools suggests…
■ Beginning with a small pilot phase of the approach, extending it gradually, and moving
to widespread adoption allowed educators, community members, and students to
realize the values and benefits of a restorative approach to school discipline
■ ~ 3-5 years
Kahoot Assessment
Conclusions, Implications, and
Recommendations
Conclusions

❖ Understand our students

❖ Avoid control
❖ Co-construct
❖ Do not assume
❖ Collaboration
❖ Keep students in class
Recommendations

A charge to teacher education

A charge to researchers
A charge to reformers
A charge to teachers and other educators
A charge to professional development facilitators
A Charge to Teacher Education

❖ Lack of coursework
❖ Linking context, content, and classroom management practices
❖ Students should be co-creators of classroom culture
❖ Don’t be afraid
A Charge to Researchers

Weinstein et al. (2004)

❖ What types of cultural conflicts can arise in classrooms that might make it more difficult to have a
safe, caring, environment?

❖ What approaches are most appropriate when students in one particular classroom come from a
variety of cultural backgrounds?

❖ How can we sensitize our teachers to their own biases, assumptions, and stereotypes so that they
undergo genuine personal transformation rather than simply learning to mouth the socially
appropriate responses?
A Charge to Researchers Cont.
❖ Research is limited (classroom management w/ linguistically diverse
students)

❖ Lack of reliable data

❖ Teachers should conduct research

A Charge to Reformers

❖ Rethink mindset of “controlling” classroom

❖ Increase opportunities to learn and perpetuate student ownership

❖ Let students know they have the right to envision other possibilities beyond
traditional barriers of race, gender, and social class.
A Charge to Teachers and Other Educators
❖ https://jamboard.google.com/d/1f-_7C8eDBrgiy6Ly2Thw4_aSFl3fQJ4rDIC6
EG90ACo/edit?usp=sharing
A Charge to Professional Development
Facilitators
❖ Shepherds teachers into transformative practices that disrupt the status quo
❖ Develop sustained opportunities for teachers to develop over time
Final Insights
❖ Fight for and with every student

❖ Help students realize and reach their full capacity to live and learn

❖ Change and reject deficit notions

❖ Think about the social construction of behavior practices, discipline, and

punishment
Thank you for your attention, respect, and
participation!
Questions? Comments? Etc.?