The intention for this website is to will create, compile, and curate resources for delivering Restorative Justice Education (rje[1]) Circles to include English Language Learners (ELLs). This will attempt a more inclusive approach to create culturally responsive learning environments for ELLs through rje. This work will focus only on practical tools in Circle and approaches for including these learners. I have delivered some of these activities with my own students, who include newcomer beginner ELLs, students with interrupted formal education (SIFE), and other students with diverse backgrounds and needs. 

As a teacher of English as an Additional (EAL), and with a background of learning and teaching Indigenous Studies, I often practice whole-person education that reflects relationship building and non-hierarchical Circle discussions with EAL students. However, this work was not done under the umbrella of rje. What I have found in my more recent introduction to rje Circles is that many of the practices and modules that I’ve experienced are reliant upon fluent discussions, which could prove inaccessible to many ELLs. This is especially true for students who are beginner learners and are new to the country. Refugee students may also feel vulnerable in exposed circle environments due to experiences with trauma, the resulting barriers to trust, limited relationships in Canada, and having to survive cross-culturally in a structured school system. However, evidence has shown that rje can prove very effective for refugee learners to share authentic student voices and can provide a place to build community healing among refugee learners (Ogilvie, 2016). Furthermore, Ogilvie describes how effective use of rje with refugee students can address the issue of deficit-driven instruction with EAL students (2016). A case study at an International High School demonstrated that a whole-school Restorative Justice approach can meet the needs of diverse ELLs through relationship-building, student feedback, and building groups to increase student relationships and trust (Terry, 2017). This study demonstrates that EAL students who have access to rje have higher graduation rates, lower suspension and expulsions, and fewer dropouts overall compared to the average numbers nationwide (2017). These issues of school disengagement are disproportionately experienced by EAL students, and it is through relationship building and finding a place of engagement that this school is achieving these results. I believe that these results may be also experienced when practitioners of rje could engage in more accessible approaches for language learners in their classrooms and rje circles.

In her chapter History, Race, Justice, and Language: Four Pedagogical Stances to Practice Restorative Justice (Winn, 2018), the author states that deficit framing our EAL students is embedded in our language, and I think that creating a clear framework for classrooms may support teachers in learning how to work with their ELLs and address what Winn calls the “education debt to BIPOC peoples” (2018, p.40). In this way, we can answer the question of who belongs, who doesn’t, and what do we need to do to ensure that we are building culturally responsive and inclusive circles for all. 

This website could become a resource for both my EAL colleagues and classroom teachers who have ELLs. The goal was to create a simple format that will be accessible to language teachers who may not have a full understanding of rje, or conversely, to those who may use rje regularly, but are new to teaching culturally diverse and refugee students. The process of creating this was more complex than expected but I hope that some of my colleagues will find these materials useful and applicable. In my current school in St John’s, NL, I hope that this may prove a timely tool for teachers who are struggling to find inclusive ways to reach their new influx of refugee students. The area is distinct in that they have very recently had a dramatic shift in demographics and are working to build relationships with newcomers, but are armed with limited cross-cultural teaching experiences and few resources. With easy-to-use tools and materials, I hope that this could impact our approach and their efficacy when working with this new population. Ultimately, I wish that we could build a whole-school approach to rje and cultural responsiveness so that classmates of these students could form authentic relationships that can travel across the language divide.

This website includes research and evidence to inform this practice, tools and tips for working with ELLs in mainstream rje circles, and modules, materials, and quotes that reflect approaches for guiding circles with ELLs. There are many EAL teaching tools and visuals that could lend themselves to this work, and I have included some key materials in the tab for extra resources. Since I have been teaching in this field for over fifteen years, the list of teaching resources is extensive. However, some foundational resources from well-respected authors include The SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2013), The ELLs Teacher’s Toolbox (Ferlazzo & Sypnieski, 2018), RTI for Diverse Learners (Collier, 2010), and Bridging Two Worlds: Supporting Newcomer and Refugee Youth (Stewart & Martin, 2018). I ventured into generative AI to produce lessons and materials using common online graphic design tools such as Craiyon, Twinkl and Canva. To ensure that I am designing proper sessions based on rje principles and formats, I utilized the Circle Forward materials (Boyes-Watson & Pranis, 2020), The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice (Davis, 2019), and The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools (Pointer, McGoey, & Farrar, 2020). My research and evidence background has been built upon the articles focusing on critical race relations and restorative and transformative teaching for English Language Learners (Winn, 2018) (Terry, 2017) (Faughey, 2020) (Ogilvie, 2016) (Evans, Morrison, & Vaandering, 2021).These materials are all housed here, and include lesson plans and materials to move this conversation forward.

This final product is something that I hope to build on, reflect on, change, and ultimately professionally grow from. I hope to use it as a springboard for difficult conversations around inclusion and relationship-building in our schools. Ultimately, however, the process of creating this project has been most valuable for me. In building it, I am forced to engage in challenging conversations with colleagues, try hard things with my students, and find what works through trial and failures. It has brought me closer to my students and that we learned the value of trust and authentic learning together through our beginnings with restorative justice education.

References

Boyes-Watson, C., & Pranis, K. (2020). Circle Forward: Building a Restorative School Community (Revised ed.). Living Justice Press.

Collier, C. (2010). RTI for Diverse Learners. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Davis, F. E. (2019). The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice: Black Lives, Healing, and US Social Transformation. Good Books.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2013). The SIOP Model: Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners (5th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Evans, K., & Vaandering, D. (2022). Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education: Fostering responsibility, healing, and hope in schools. New York: Good Books.

Evans, K., Morrison, B., & Vaandering, D. (2021). Critical Race Theory and Restorative Justice Education. In T. Lewis, & C. Stauffer, Listening to the Movement: Essays on New Growth and New Challenges in Restorative Justice (pp. 64-72). Eugene: Cascade Books.

Faughey, D. (2020). "I Got This!" visual methods as restorative practices. English Journal, 110(2), 77-84.

Ferlazzo, L., & Sypnieski, K. H. (2018). The ELL's Teacher's Toolbox. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ogilvie, G. &. (2016). Restorative justice pedagogy in the ESL classroom: Creating a caring environment to support refugee students. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL Du Canada, 33(10), 86-96. doi:http://dx.doi.org/1018806/tesl.v33i0.1246

Pointer, L., McGoey, K., & Farrar, H. (2020). The Little Book of Restorative Teaching Tools. New York: Good Books.

Samway, K. D., & Taylor, D. (2008). Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies that Work. New York: Scholastic.

Stewart, J., & Martin, L. (2018). Bridging Two Worlds: Supporting Newcomer and Refugee Youth. Toronto: CERIC.

Terry, M. (2017). Restorative practices and English language learners: Language development in relational contexts. In Restorative Justice Meets Social Justice (pp. 89-105). Information Age Publishing.

White, S. A. (2004). Activities for English Language Learners Across the Curriculum. Huntington Beach: Shell Education.

Winn, M. (2018). History, Race, Justice, and Language: Four Pedagogical Stances to Practice Restorative Justice. In M. Winn, Justice on Both Sides: Transforming Education through Restorative Justice (pp. 29-49). Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

[1] To connect to my foundational understanding of restorative justice education as learned from Katherine Evans and Dorothy Vaandering, I adhere to the use of lowercase ‘rje’ to acknowledge that restorative justice education is an overall way of being and not a named program of learning (Evans & Vaandering, 2022).