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Avoidance of Zero Tolerance Policies (p. 13-14)

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Avoidance of Zero Tolerance Policies (p. 13-14)

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With high suspension rates for students (particularly black students, as shown by the Capitol of Suspensions report by The Five Critical Facts Series), zero tolerance policies prevent administration, teachers, and associated school personnel from seeing the grey disciplinary situations intermixed with a "black and white" punishment-first system.
Winn, Graham, & Alfred (2019) argue that in a study where almost 60% of students received at least one suspension or explusion in secondary public schools that, "This study shows that in the majority of cases the adminstrator could have used other strategies to deal with the situation" (p. 13).
Restorative justice practices frown upon unnecessary punishment and zero tolerance policies, citing that, "Harming people to show that harming others is wrong is counterproductive and not conducive to community building and healing harm..." (p.15).

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Restorative Justice practices seek to disrupt the phenomenon known as the school to prison pipeline. Punitive disciplinary practices in schools lead to high levels of suspensions and expulsions, "students who are suspended and expelled from school are, in turn, significantly more likely to become caught up in the juvenile justice system" and "twice as likely to drop out of school or be held back a grade" (p.14).

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"Together adults and young people in schools can liberate themselves by working toward the common goal of mutual respect." (p.16)

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Restorative Justice in the English Language Arts Classroom

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Restorative Justice in the English Language Arts Classroom

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Maisha T. Winn
Hannah Graham
Rita Renjitham Alfred

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2019

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Winn, Graham, and Alfred's paths came together under their passion for seeking change in how we discipline students in the classroom. It was never about changing students, but rather changing the adults who were in positions of power. In support of teachers and their journey to building better "relationships with their students", Winn, Graham, and Alfred curated this book as the "road map for integrating restorative justice in the teaching of various subjects" (Winn, Graham, Alfred ix).

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"The practices of restorative justice in education (RJE) have their roots in Indigenous cultural wisdom and were introduced to the Western justice system in the early 1980s and applied in schools in the early 1990s by educators and RJE advocates" (p. 11)

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Seven Core Assumptions about Human Beings

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Seven Core Assumptions about Human Beings

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In order to transform relationships amongst staff, students, and their parents, professional and personal power should be used with the following Seven Core Assumptions about all human beings at the center. Restorative justice is not a quick fix, it "is a mindset and heart change." (p.16-17)

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Tiered approach to Restorative Justice (p.23)

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Tiered approach to Restorative Justice (p.23)

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Restorative justice models focus on three tiers. The first tier is building and strengthening relationships, which is where most of the work centers on. This involves mostly community building, and doesn't always involve discussing the conflict directly. Tier 2 is repairing relationships, and this is where the conflict is introduced. A sense of community is needed for healing, and this section focuses on attending to the person who was harmed, rather than punishing the person who committed the harm. Tier 3 is re-entry/reintegration, which can then begin the tiering process (restarting with tier 1 again). This is focused on students that have been suspended or removed from the classroom, and how we can best remove barriers to them coming back to the classroom.

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"... the ideal way to honor a person is to accept the person unconditionally and to share power 'with' the person rather than have power 'over' them" (19)

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One of the philosophies that Restorative Justice practices, is the concept of "doing with" (Winn, Graham, Alfred 2019 pg 19). In the context of power and how we may use our power in the classroom as teachers, we are encouraged to share it as a way of honoring all individuals.
Additionally, while it may sound counter intuitive, by "doing with" all of our students and honoring them individually, we create a community over individualism. All members of our classroom become a part of the power and we all make decisions "for the good of all the people most affected by the decisions to be made" (Winn, Graham, Alfred 2019 pg 19).

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Multidisciplinary scholar and published researcher on understudied communities. "A language, literacy, and culture" (Winn, Graham, Alfred viii) professor with the aim to understand the affects of institutions in regards to their "larger cultural-historical development [on] racially diverse and low income communities" (UC Davis Faculty Profile).

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Graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an "experienced" teacher and "curriculum developer" (Winn, Graham, Alfred ix). Graham's experience working in New York City, Tel Aviv, and Chicago school sectors as well as their interest in "classroom talk" (viii) is part of the reason for why Winn invited them to be apart of this team.

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Founder of Restorative Justice Training Institute in Berkeley, CA, and experienced educator for both children and specifically adults. It was Rita's experience at Cole Middle School in Oakland, CA that caught the attention of Winn's attention. Their admiration for one another and meditation of restorative justice is what led to Alfred joining the team.

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Chapter 1: Teaching English in the Age of Mass Incarceration

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Chapter 1: Teaching English in the Age of Mass Incarceration

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This chapter asks the reader to imagine teaching English Language Arts in the age of mass incarceration. The authors speak of four dimensions of adolescent literacy:

1. "shifting literacy demands;

2. multiple and social literacies;

3. the importance of motivation;

4.  the value of a multicultural perspective" (3).

The above elements come together partially under this idea of,  "Raciolingustics...an intersection for the historical context of words and language, as well as contemporary understandings of how words and language get assigned to race in potentially dehumanizing ways" (3).

The authors circle back and disseminate their explanation of the four dimensions mentioned above:

1. Shifting literacy demands calls into the question the notion that students do not bring anything of value to the classroom. It seeks to establish student experience as the focal point of a Restorative Justice classroom.

2. Multiple and social literacies affirm the previous notion of valuing student experiences by asking teachers to provide a place for students to express themselves as they are in the forms they are most comfortable with; this section is in agreement with the practice of code meshing.

3. The importance of motivation again brings up the importance of making students feel valued. In doing so, teachers are more likely to get engaged students that want to be part of the classroom community.

4. The value of multicultural perspective asks teachers to set an example of critically engaging with other communities and identities so that there is a baseline level of respect and understanding.

In applying these four tenants, teachers are able to foster a Restorative Justice classroom that affirms the identities of others and takes into account the ways in which current punishment systems yield young people to the school-to-prison pipeline, and thus expanding the mass incarceration epidemic.

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Chapter 2: Restorative Justice in Educative Spaces

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Chapter 2: Restorative Justice in Educative Spaces

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Restorative Justice in Education has roots in Indigenous cultural wisdom. It asks the participants to be aware of who they are and how they all function together as a community. The authors claim that Restorative Justice practices are necessary because of the findings of a survey: "Fabelo et al. (2011) found that 59.6% of students experienced at least one suspension or expulsion in secondary public school" (13). This study also found that only 3% of students acted in a way that would demand a suspension or expulsion based on the rules of the school. These poor experiences in school have been linked to ACES (14); students are not only facing adverse experiences in classes, but are suffering from them later on in life as well. Because of these compounding elements, the authors of this book call for the end of traditional punishment methods, and they are proponents of adopting Restorative Justice models in place of them.

Beyond the information mentioned above, this chapter focused heavily on the methodology and application of Restorative Justice circles and the three-tiered approach that informs them. We dove deeper into these approaches in the "Methods in ELA" section of this Padlet.

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Chapter 3: Using Our Curricular Powers: Pedagogy and Restoration in the ELA Classroom

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Chapter 3: Using Our Curricular Powers: Pedagogy and Restoration in the ELA Classroom

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This chapter focuses in more on pedagogy. The driving force behind it is the student and their experiences: "...students are the curriculum; they determine the utility of the literary tools and processes presented to them, thus disrupting the cycle of devaluing student perspectives and literacies..." (45). Educators are bringing in aspects of Reader Response Theory and Culturally Responsive Teaching in order to foster this teaching approach.

The authors then move on to talk about the four Pedagogical Approaches fundamental to building a Restorative Justice English Classroom (45):

1. Fashioning inclusive contexts: Students and their responses to texts need to be valued.

2. Integrating "lived" literate materials: The experience of students within their literate communities is an important component that needs to be utilized, while also offering rich and diverse texts that support the Windows and Mirrors approach.

3. Creating a Dialogic classroom that values alternate viewpoints: A dialogic classroom offers students the opportunity to learn and develop as thinkers by providing time and space for students to communicate their ideas and interpretations to one another (59).

4. Engaging in emancipatory literacies that develop critical, action-oriented consciousness: Educators must evoke differing viewpoints and perspectives within texts and topics that help students consider how they might approach inequities.

The rest of this chapter focuses on the ways educators can put the four pedagogical approaches in motion. We dive deeper into these methods and theories in the "Methods in ELA" section of this Padlet.

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Chapter 4: Assessing Our Spaces and Ourselves

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Chapter 4: Assessing Our Spaces and Ourselves

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Assessment of the self and educational spaces is the focal point of this chapter. The authors begin by focusing on the concept of auditing the self: "An important assessment step toward fostering a restorative classroom is teacher self-assessment and the resulting creation of a personal learning development plan, engaging in a process of auditing the self" (73). In order to do this, educators need to take three intentional steps:

1. Consider Areas of Growth

2. Locate Resources to Grow in Particular Areas

3. Reflect and Take Action

The authors moved from the individual to the classroom. They focused on Classroom Development. One way to do so is to examine learning contexts. Student surveys that gauge how students feel about their voices and value in class is one way of doing so (80). The classroom can be audited further by thinking critically about texts and the integration of loved experiences. Diverse texts offer students the opportunity to experience the Mirrors and Windows approach to interpretation through reading (82). Again, the focus of education and curriculum needs to be centered around the lived experiences and personal interpretations of students.

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Chapter 5: Transforming Writing Instruction: Where Do We Go from Here?

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Chapter 5: Transforming Writing Instruction: Where Do We Go from Here?

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This chapter begins by talking about some practices that need to be addressed to help write about potentially pressing issues:

1. Begin Within: Educators need to think about their reactions to pressing issues and then find ways to get students to engage the same way.

2. Get Back to Instruction: Ensure that students continue to learn; it is their right!

3. Strengthen Classroom Community: Check-in with students regularly to maintain a strong community where everyone feels comfortable confronting difficult topics.

4. Discuss the Meaning of Respect: Define the term as a collective and return to is as needed.

5. Look and Plan Ahead: Demonstrate how literature can help plan for a different future; explain how reading and writing can be tools to foster a forward-thinking environment.

6. Losing with Grace: Question wins and losses, and how both can be beneficial.

Another way to teach writing in Restorative Justice classrooms involves Read Write Think Circles (92). These circles are similar to Restorative Justice Community Building Circles, but differ in that oral conversation helps reinforce reading and writing activities that create critical thinkers. Although they differ in important ways, these circles share some similarities with the more well-known Socratic Seminar circles, and they can be adapted to almost any form of literature.

In order to be an impactful Restorative Justice educator, the authors argue that teachers must adopt a mindset that Milner made famous of starting where you are, but not staying there (96). By rejecting notions of colorblindness, understanding cultural conflicts and meritocracy, and rejecting deficit mind-sets, teachers can close the gaps in opportunity facing students today in an effort to dissolve the inequities that persist within the classroom.

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The guidelines for circles are made by participants and can be different from the above example. 

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A talking circle involves: seating all participants in a circle, using a talking piece, having an opening and closing, agreeing on guidelines, and having a centerpiece to have in the middle of the circle (but not anything else between participants). People in the circle should agree on values and reflection on what they have learned afterwards. A trained circle keeper should lead each discussion, who should not interrupt and will follow all the same rules as everyone else (while facilitating the discussion). English teachers can integrate these circles in their classroom through discussing a theme or message in a book, especially through question facilitation.

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A restorative conversation is an "informal" method used by teachers to "prevent escalation into more serious conflict and to prevent any harm" for all members of the classroom (Winn, Graham, Alfred 2019 pg 40). This method encourages 1 on 1 conversations between the teacher and the student in hopes to find a better understanding of the conflict, and to ultimately resolve said conflict and integrate the student back into the class.
In brief, we are to 1. assess our own readiness to facilitate a conversation with the student, 2. assess the student's readiness, and 3. assess the context of the entire situation at hand.
A restorative conversation is primarily used when there is tension already perceivable by the students and the teacher. In an ELA setting, we may need to utilize this during controversial moments discussed from the text where students may feel singled out or misrepresented by someone else's statements. A restorative conversation should also extend beyond conflict and can be casually utilized as just a weekly check-in with students over paper during a warm-up of sorts.

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The beauty of ELA is the flexibility of how we may use the literary canon and standard curriculum in ways that are not typical. Whether we are reading Harriet Jacobs, John Keats, or Kazuo Ishiguro, it is our job as teachers to make it so that all students can connect parts of those texts to their lives and create a space for students to openly discuss the text.
In practice, we are to create spaces for students, affirm their responses to the text, and encourage a dynamic way for them to learn (Winn, Graham, Alfred 2019 pg 50-51).
For example, if a student says that Virginia Woolf's writing is hard to follow and therefore Mrs. Dalloway sucks, we are to ask for clarification of their ideas rather than to dismiss their criticism. Our goal with the practice of restorative justice is approaching each student with good faith and a way for them to explain their thoughts, or even a way out of their claims.

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Windows (material that reflects other cultures) and mirrors (material that reflects a student's own culture) should be integrated for all students. Considering that all students are different, this means a variety of materials should be presented, especially "lived materials." There should be a focus on valuing each student's individual experiences and interpretations, to which no singular text is more important than any other. If you know students like a certain type of material, engage with that mirror. Lastly, help students describe their insights into characters from texts even if they are not from the same background; this can be a good practice related to windows.

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Students should support communication between students and themselves, which includes valuing different points of view. In practice, this looks like giving students multiple, different types of opportunities to share their opinions, noticing how students are participating, and increasing the parts of the discussion that fuel participation. Recognizing the ways your students engage is the most important part: how do you increase engagement for each student while valuing what they already enjoy?
In an ELA setting this may look like showing different mediums of a text. Showcasing poetry, music, or movies to enhance the text's themes may provide more opportunity for students to engage in the class with each other.

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Restorative Justice as a Practice, Not Solution (p.62-66)

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Restorative Justice as a Practice, Not Solution (p.62-66)

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The roles of restorative justice never end. The restorative justice lens can be applied within every text read in the classroom to discuss power dynamics and how to address these power conflicts in local contexts. This can involve resistance that can be applied outside of the classroom. Let your discussion continue into everyday contexts, and empower your students to take their lessons to the problems they confront regularly.

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"The most important place to start is the self, restraining our minds to be more critical of our own biases." (p.72)

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Restorative Circles: Creating a Safe Environment for Students to Reflect