This Edutopia featured video focuses on students at Pittsfield Middle High School who are trained to mediate conflicts between their fellow students—and between students and teachers.
Archive
Learning Skills of Peace through Every Day Conflicts
Practical Activities and Resources for Families, Teachers and Other Caregivers. Noting that the conflicts arising daily for young children provide an opportunity for adults to model and teach skills for handling conflict peacefully, this guide provides tips for preventing unnecessary conflict, offers “first aid” for conflict moments, and provides resources for addressing common situations that can cause conflict. Developed cooperatively by Ohio’s Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, Head Start Association, and Department of Education Division of Early Childhood, with implementation facilitated by many Ohio public libraries, the guide is comprised of 40 thematic units of instruction for the early childhood setting, with most units accompanied by home cards providing tips for preventing conflict and suggested activities. Each unit contains information on the importance of the topic for conflict management and its link to peace, suggested books, activities, and copies of home cards. The 40 units cover: (1) anger and aggression; (2) art; (3) bad day; (4) bad language; (5) bathtime; (6) bedtime; (7) behavior; (8) big and little; (9) big brother, big sister; (10) biting; (11) conflict; (12) cultural diversity; (13) death; (14) disabilities; (15) divorce; (16) dressing; (17) family; (18) fears; (19) feelings and emotions; (20) free choice; (21) lying; (22) mealtime at school; (23) mistakes; (24) nap time at school; (25) new baby; (26) teaching the problem-solving process; (27) safety; (28) school; (29) security objects; (30) self-esteem; (31) sharing; (32) siblings; (33) sickness; (34) stealing; (35) stress; (36) tantrums; (37) time out; (38) transitions; (39) whining and nagging; and (40) work. Also included in the guide are additional resources, such as a list of books for each unit, information on child development and child needs from birth to five years, and suggested readings for teachers and parents.
Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships and Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools
As educators partner with districts to move away from zero tolerance discipline policies and ramp up e orts to strengthen safe and supportive schools, address con ict, improve school climate, and build a positive school culture that students are connected to, many campuses are looking to implement alternative, restorative approaches.
This toolkit was developed to illustrate how restorative strategies can be seamlessly integrated into the classroom, curriculum, and culture of schools. It de nes what restorative practices are, explains why they are a transformational tool for fostering healthy relationships in schools and shows how they can be useful processes for students, educators, and learning communities.
This toolkit is intended for all educators who support the growth and health of students in schools. It is an introduction for those new to the concepts and will help support and enhance the work of teachers already implementing these practices in their classrooms. e toolkit includes digestible models, frameworks, and action steps for school-wide implementation, accompanied by guiding questions to support re ection for practitioners looking to make restorative methods part of the fabric of daily life in schools. It also recognizes the signi cant role all education professionals play in maintaining a school community that models respectful, trusting, and caring relationships.
Parent-To-Parent Guide on Restorative Justice
This “Parent-to-Parent Guide to Restorative Justice in the Chicago Public Schools” provides background on POWER-PAC Elementary Justice Campaign and their work to end “zero-tolerance” policies and bring restorative justice to the schools. It also gives suggestions for parents wanting to bring restorative practices to their schools.
How We Can Fix School Discipline Toolkit
The 77-page ‘How We Can Fix School Discipline Toolkit’ contains step-by-step tools and real-life stories about implementing the alternatives to suspension and expulsion that are proven to keep students in school and learning, improve school climate and student behavior, allow teachers to teach more effectively, help administrators meet benchmarks, and keep communities from seeing many of their children ending up in the juvenile justice system. Alternative approaches featured include School-Wide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support (SWPBIS), Restorative Justice or Restorative Practices, and Social Emotional Learning. The document is structured as follows:
1. Know the problem (pages 4-10)
2. Learn about alternatives from real-life examples (pages 11-48)
3. Advocate for Change (page 63)
4. Monitor progress (pages 68-70)
5. Get the word out (pages 64-67)
6. Contacts (pages 71-78)
A companion website is available at http://www.fixschooldiscipline.org. A video archive of a webinar introducing the toolkit is available at http://youtu.be/6PrCh0MiRZc
Multiple Responses, Promising Results: Evidence-Based, Nonpunitive Alternatives To Zero Tolerance
Research brief by Child Trends that finds that zero tolerance school discipline policies have not been proven effective by research and may have negative effects, making students more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate on time. Instead, the brief recommends the use of nonpunitive disciplinary action, such as behavior interventions, social skills classes, and character education.
Implementing restorative justice: A guide for schools
This 24-page pdf is designed to introduce the concepts of restorative justice and restorative discipline to school personnel. “The guide advises on the use of the restorative justice philosophy to achieve student accountability, competency development, as well as community safety. The guide is specifically designed to provide Illinois school personnel and families with practical strategies to use restorative justice in their daily activities.”
Positive approaches to discipline scenario
Web-based interactive scenario which “demonstrates the differences between positive discipline and punishment. Discipline techniques focus on what we want the child to learn and what the child is capable of learning. Punishment, on the other hand, focuses on misbehavior and may do little or nothing to help a child behave better in the future. The differences between positive discipline and punishment are great, as well as the lessons learned that result from the technique used.”
Educational discipline using the principles of restorative justice
15-page pdf article which “shows how restorative justice techniques can be used with students in correctional and alternative education settings. The simple principles of restorative justice are outlined and their suitability for offenders is illustrated through actual prison incidents that have been dealt with using these principles. A protocol is suggested for teachers and administrators who might consider adopting this approach.”
Teaching conflict and conflict resolution in school: (Extra-) curricular considerations
Report that explored “the school factors that influence young people’s developing understandings of war, conflict, and peace … as children grow, they develop understandings about interpersonal and social conflict, about procedures for handling it, and about the violence and war that may emerge when conflicts are not resolved, in school, official curricula guide children’s and adolescents’ development of understanding about war, conflict and peace, at least as powerfully, young people also learn about conflict from the implicit curricula of student activities, teacher and peer responses to political events, school governance, and discipline practices.”
Creating and promoting positive school climate in Ohio’s schools: Anti-harassment, anti-intimidation
33-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Second International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education, presenting “A review of an anti-harassment, anti-intimidation or anti-bullying model policy for education from the state of Ohio in the United States.”
Soft vs firm limits
Word document which discusses soft limits and firm limits, with examples and consequences.
School discipline vs conflict resolution
Pdf document comparing traditional school discipline and conflict resolution practices.
Cooperative discipline
Pdf document that presents a workshop to investigate the difference between punishment and discipline, consider the role of encouragement in the classroom and experience a classroom meeting.
Punishment versus discipline
Pdf document which defines punishment and discipline.