The Teacher's Guide to Restorative Classroom Discipline

Meyer (education, Victoria U., New Zealand) and Evans (psychology, Massey U., New Zealand) show elementary and secondary teachers how to use a restorative discipline approach in the classroom to deal with relationships, problem solving, conflict resolution and prevention, and restoration and making amends. They outline the key characteristics of restorative classrooms, planning and establishing practices, and the importance of school climate, followed by setting schoolwide and classroom behavior expectations and ensuring rules are culturally responsive. They discuss establishing positive home-school and community relationships; specific strategies, such as cooperative learning structures, peer support networks, group and collaborative problem solving, mediation, mentoring, classroom conferencing, and dealing with bullying; and individualized interventions for students with severe or persistent behavioral challenges using a prevent, educate, restore, and think model, with examples. Further chapters cover recording incidents, conferencing at the school level, in-school suspension, suicide prevention and intervention, threat assessment, breaking up fights, school safety, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and practices, and professional development assessment. The volume is part of a three-volume set on restorative discipline. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)