Using Restorative
Practices
To Transform a School
Laurie Flanagan
Educator
Social Discipline Window
High
Control
Low
Low
Support
High
Restorative Practice
Is a philosophy that works to make
everyone feel respected and heard,
asks people to be accountable for
their behavior
and promotes restoring and
repairing harm when harm has been
caused.
The Restorative movement seeks
to develop good relationships and
restore a sense of community in
our increasingly disconnected
world.
Being Restorative Means:
To believe that decisions are
best made and conflicts are
best resolved by those most
directly involved in them.
Restorative Responses:
• Can be an effective prevention practice.
• Restorative responses are intended to correct the
problem behavior, prevent a reoccurrence, protect
and provide support for the victim, and take
corrective action for documented systemic problems
related to bullying and harassment.
• Restorative responses allow the individual an
opportunity to reflect on behaviors, learn pro-social
skills and make amends to those affected.
Restorative Practices Continuum
Informal
Formal
_______________________________
Affective
Statements
Affective
Questions
Small
Impromptu
Conference
Group
or Circle
Formal
Conference
Affective Statements
Tells others how their behavior is
affecting you
When adults express their feelings,
children become more empathetic
Affective Statements
help you build a relationship based on
students’ new image of you as
someone who cares and has feelings
rather than as a
distant authority figure
Affective Questions
help to elicit what a student is
thinking and feeling.
Therefore, many of their responses will be
affective statements.
Affective Questions
let you turn the tables.
You still address
inappropriate behavior but
in a way that asks students
to
think for themselves
about their actions and to
reflect on
how they affect other
people.
Affective Questions when
Challenging Behavior
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?
• What do you think you need to do to
make things right?
•
•
•
•
Affective Questions To Help
Those Harmed
• 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?
An overview of circles
•
•
•
•
•
Set up a circle of chairs one for each participating
individual
Have a talking piece ready
There are no interruptions, questions, put-downs
or gossip/rumors allowed.
Everyone must agree to guidelines, which will be
read and left in the middle of the circle on the
floor.
People may decide to pass when it is their turn.
Types of Circles in Schools
• Proactive Circles
• Responsive Circles
• Staff Circles
A Formal Restorative Conference
• Addresses the needs of the person harmed
• Expects the person or persons who have done
harm to admit they did something wrong,
even if both sides have been harmed and
done harm
• Expects that all participants will work to solve
the problem
• Uses consensus as a way of making decisions
• Creates an agreement that outlines ways of
repairing the harms(s) – a plan for changing
behavior and for those that did harm to give
back to the community
• Creates a plan for safety and/or support for
the victim(s) if needed
• Creates connection to caring adults for all
students who have been affected by the harm,
whether victims, offenders or bystanders
Get Kids to Tell Their Story
Whenever a situation happens with bad
behavior, there is always a story.
There are always details that will help you see
why or how it has come to this point.
Using Affective questions to get to the story will
help you determine what direction to go with
this behavior.
I have come to a frightening conclusion;
that I am the decisive element in the
classroom….
As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to
make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated, and a child humanized or
dehumanized.
Haim Ginott
Resources
Websites
• www.iirp.org
• www.ibarj.org
• Books
• The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians and
Administrators by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel
• The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools – Teaching
responsibility; creating caring climates by Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz and Judy Mullet
• Restorative Circles in Schools, Building Community and Enhancing
Learning by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel and Ted Wachtel
• The Little Book of Circle Processes – A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking
by Kay Pranis
• Circle in the Square, Building Community and Repairing Harm in Schools
by Nany Riestenberg
Laurie Flanagan
YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago
Patterson and McDaniel Family Center
630-790-6600 x 2488
Hotline: 630-971-3927
Laurie.Flanagan@ywcachicago.org
Matt Adelman
Glen Ellyn School District 41
630-790-6450
madelman@d41.org