Circles and Mediation
Circles are a part of the Restorative Continuum...
There are different types of circles; some are preventative and some are responsive.
Community Building Circles are preventative and proactive, meaning we build them into daily practice to build community, culture, and meet our students social/emotional needs through the building of trust.
Restorative, or Harm, Circles are responsive circles that take place after harm has been done and when relationships need to be repaired. Mediation also takes place after harm has occurred, but with smaller groups/pairs.
RestorativeProcessesGuide.pdfThe document above contains explanation of the different types of circles, mediation, and conversations that fall on the Restorative Continuum. Scroll through!
Part of leading a circle involves determining what type of circle or practice it is. Different types of circles require different tools and different question stems. Many of them are explained through the resources below.
Which of these are you already using?
You are already a restorative practitioner.
Formatting a Circle
You can use the format for circles that best works for your and your students' needs. This is a sample of how formatting can go, as a starting point. You should tweak this to serve the needs in your life at school.
Questions
The questions you ask during a circle are hugely important to achieving your goal within the circle. This graphic explains that different questions serve different purposes.
Is the circle you're planning to build trust and community? or is it to build authenticity and ownership?
A Community Building Circle in an ELL classroom (above) and in an Elementary classroom (below).
The images in this section are to serve as starting points for you as you embark upon and build upon your work in circles.
Some of these are ideal for restorative circles, and others would work for any circle.
Moving to restorative circles
This video shows how restorative circles can change the impact of discipline on students' behaviors.
Restorative circles build affective and cognitive engagement, yield empathy, and transfer change to students' future behavior.
Zero-tolerance policies and punitive discipline do not, statistically, change students' behavior at all.
Traditional, Punitive Discipline VS Restorative Practices and Discipline
This image is from Better Than Carrots or Sticks, a powerful resource on the impacts and research behind restorative practices in discipline. The first chapter is available for your reading, here:
Hacking School Discipline
is a book and resource that outlines nine steps for integrating restorative discipline and practices into the daily life of an educator, through the nine steps above. An outline of the book and more information on the steps are available here:
Discipline is a form of communication to our students. It's a restorative practice. It must be rooted in learning experiences in order for the consequence to actually impact the students' behavior. Restorative practices lead to impact.
Don't forget - Behavior is Communication
All behavior, good or bad, is communicating a student's needs to us.
Circles change behavior because they yield ownership and efficacy
Punitive discipline does not.