“It is necessary to reimagine the ELA classroom as a place to practice justice” (p. 2).

"The 'I am from' poem moves beyond merely celebrating differences to give students and teachers an opportunity to see the nuances in family traditions, and it also supports White students who see themselves as void of 'culture' in understanding that they too have experiences that are unique to their families and communities" (p. 5).

• “Who was harmed?”
• “What do they need?”
• “Whose obligations are these?” (p. ix).

• Students can be turned off of school if the multiple literacies they bring to the classroom are not valued.
• Literacy expands outside of just reading! “Reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices that call upon the voice as well as the eye and the hand… it also extends to new media” (p. xiii). 
  • Out-of-school literacies are incredibly important for literacy development too! “Teachers can draw on these skills to foster learning in school” (p. xiv).
• “Teachers often devalue, ignore, or censor adolescents’ extracurricular literacies, assuming that these literacies are morally suspect, raise controversial issues, or distract ados from important work. This means that some teenagers' literacy abilities remain largely invisible in the classroom” (p. xv). 
  • Motivation can be the determining factor as to whether adolescents “engage or disengage from literacy learning” (p. xvi). 
    • Must engage and excite them to get them to develop reading and writing skills.
    • It is crucial to provide opportunities for students to make choices. 
      • Allow for self-selection and variety.
      • Allow choice in terms of writing tasks and genres
      • “Choice should be meaningful” (xvi). 
    • Focus on active, inquiry-based activities" (p. xvi). Additionally, "instruction should center around learners” (p. xvi).
  • Value of multicultural perspectives: 
    • “Monocultural approaches can cause or increase the achievement gap and ado’s disengagement with literacy. Students should see value in their own cultures and the cultures of others in their classrooms” (p. xvii)
    • Students should see their home language(s) as being valuable, not as a barrier or a deficit.
  • Whiteness studies- students must recognize white as a race so they can “develop a critical perspective on racial thinking by people of all skin colors” (xviii). Whiteness studies does not allow for white people to think of themselves as being somehow removed from race. There is absolutely no zone of neutrality! 

"When relationships are prioritized, learning will happen" (xii). 

•       A restorative justice English education  not neutral, as we have explored in previous chapters, but rather provides opportunities to engage in difficult dialogues that explore race, class, gender, privilege, and so many topics that can be challenging, not just among colleagues and students but for families and loved one as well. (p. 88)
• Getting back to instruction is our commitment to our students that communicates to them that they deserve to be engaged in high-quality work with rigor and purpose everyday. (p.89)
• Looking and planning ahead is more likely if you have prioritized getting "back to instruction" and "strengthening your classroom community," because then you are creating a future-orientated culture in which students understand that they have more than just the moment in front of them. (p. 90).  

•      Read Write Think Circles serve as a prewriting activities during which students can read aloud, discuss, and write in response to a short article, poem, or excerpt related to the unit, theme, or learning objective. (p. 92)

• These principles attend to connectedness through affirming, repairing, and rebuilding relationships. 

• It pushes away from this ideal of individualism and focuses on community building.
• Has shown effectiveness in areas where discipline is required.

• Over the course of three years, they reduced suspensions by 87%, increased effective student participation, accountability, and leadership by implementing RJ just with their teachers and staff. 
  • They also retained 100% of their teachers.
• Within the first year, they showed a 20% decrease in fights between students and a 20% decrease in suspensions.

• By missing out on school, students are missing out on their education and falling behind their peers. This leads to students being 2x more likely to drop out of school or be held back. 
• ZT does not take into account the effects of poverty and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
• ACEs study found that a higher number of adverse childhood experiences is “at the root of most violence” (p. 14).
• This punishment doesn’t work because “harming people to show that harming others is wrong is counterproductive and not conducive to community building and healing harm, nor does it make communities safer” (p. 15).
• When students do not feel like they have power/control over their lives, they will find ways to assert themselves.

• Sitting in a circle with the middle open.
• Open & closing ceremonies; this could be a song, mindfulness, games, team building activities.
• Follows particular structures (talking piece & creating and agreeing on values).
• Asks guiding questions for discussion.
• Discussion about a specific topic around school or in life.
• Concludes with a reflection - helps students consider what they have learned.

• Instead of dictating that students arrive at a predetermined understanding of a text, ELA educators should seek to give students space to determine what a text means to them personally.
• Educators should work to "restory" the practice of textual analysis within an ELA classroom- to better value multiple interpretations and capacities for understanding. 

• The text selections made within a restorative ELA classroom should serve as both "mirrors" and "windows" for the students to see the world of literature through.
• Mirrors build on cultural and personal attributes, assets, and interests you know your students engage in.
• Windows give students an opportunity to respond to characters and narratives in texts that provide insight into others’ experiences

• A dialogic classroom is one where ideas are freely shared and students feel supported enough to ask questions that provoke discussions with their peers, and where students feel a genuine interest in exploring concepts through those discussions.

• This final sections seeks to impart the understanding that justice is a process, a process which requires a careful balance  between considering alternative perspectives and acting to restore relationships.
• This section goes on to give guidance as to how, within the ELA classroom, educators can curate an action oriented consciousness within their students.
• The methods outlined include using critical lenses as a bridge to examine and act on power imbalances in local contexts.

"...by exposing myself as an English teacher who doesn't know everything, while simultaneously positioning reading and writing as a constantly in-flux tool, I made space for students to become the experts."
-Carla Oppenheimer (pg. 56)

Winn et al. (2020) point to "a term coined by Alim (2016)," which is raciolinguistics. Raciolinguistics refers to the “intersection for the historical context of words and language... [and] contemporary understandings of how words and language get assigned to race in potentially dehumanizing ways” (p. 3). 

1. Shifting Literacy Demands
2. Multiple and Social Literacies
3. The Importance of Motivation
4. The Value of Multicultural Perspectives