Exhaustive Guide to Restorative Practices in Classroom Practices and Conversations

Restorative practices can be implemented as either a whole-school approach or a specific classroom approach.
The primary purpose of these practices is to support student behaviors, particularly when the goal is to correct or prevent a specific behavior within a classroom or a given situation.
A restorative conversation is specifically designed to remove the power imbalance from a situational conflict and focus instead on supporting a positive relationship.
These relationships can be between a teacher and a student, or they can involve a conflict between two students.
By addressing the power imbalance, the practice seeks to support a free-flowing conversation that is characterized by being open and honest.
Nomenclature for this practice varies; it is also referred to as:
- Restorative conversations.
- Corridor conversations (depending on the specific school or context).

Several methods for applying these practices are discussed by Bill Rogers in his text, focusing on reestablishing working relationships.
Re-establishing Relationships After Confrontation: Teachers should seek to reconnect with students after a directed choice has been given or after a student has displayed "secondary behaviors" (such as pouting or whiny behaviors). Once the student is back on task, the teacher should move in to reconnect and reestablish that relationship.
Post-Class Discussions: A second method involves asking students to stay back at the end of a class session. The objective is to have a chat about their behavior and determine how to achieve expected behaviors in the next session.
Extraction from Other Classes (Primary Setting): In a primary school setting, if a student is in a specialist subject area, a teacher can visit that classroom and pull the student out of their learning time.
Extraction During Free Lines (Secondary Setting): In secondary classrooms, a teacher can utilize their "free lines" (off-periods) to locate the student in another class and conduct the conversation.
Duration Guidelines: These conversations are not intended to be long, hour-long sessions. They should ideally last a maximum of $5$ to $10$ minutes.

Identifying the optimal time for a restorative conversation is critical for its success.
Avoiding Heightened States: Conversations between a teacher and a student should occur when "everybody's gone." Teachers should avoid having these discussions when either the teacher or the student is in a "heightened" state. If blood pressure is high or emotions are running high, it is not an appropriate time for a rational conversation.
Median Student-to-Student Conversations: If a teacher is mediating between two students, the meeting should be held at a mutually agreed-upon time to facilitate a productive dialogue.
Student Resistance: It must be recognized that some students may not want to engage in a conversation immediately following a conflict. However, it remains important to encourage them to sit down and discuss the situation as part of modeling the restorative process.

This approach uses targeted, directed questioning strategies focusing on the events of a specific lesson.
The conversation must be kept as factual as possible while maintaining accountability.
Key questions involve:
- What happened during the lesson?
- What expectations were not met, or what specific expectations is the teacher seeking for the student to meet?
- How can the student be supported next time? (e.g., "When you start feeling that these behaviors are about to happen, what can I do to support the situation?").

Active Listening: Teachers must actively listen to the student and summarize what they have said. This demonstrates that the teacher cares enough to actually listen.
Genuineness and Well-being Checks: Before diving into the conflict, ask the student, "How are you?", "How is your day going?", or "Are you okay?".
- Students can detect if a teacher is being "fake."
- This check gauges the student's emotional, physical, and mental state to see if they are ready for the conversation.
Audience Removal: Remove the teacher and student from the presence of other students.
- If an audience is present, the student is more likely to "play to the crowd."
- The conversation should be out of "earshot" of peers, even if it remains within the "line of sight" of other adults for safety/supervision.
Open-Mindedness and Self-Reflection: Teachers should reflect on whether they caused or contributed to the escalation of the behavior.
- Owning one's own behavior is powerful. Saying "I recognize that I did the wrong thing in this situation" as a teacher can help the student come "on board" more quickly to move forward.

Scenario: Tim has been constantly calling out during the lesson. Standard classroom strategies were used but were not fully effective. Tim is asked to stay back after class.
Step 1: Check-in: Ask, "How are you doing?" to gauge his mood or if he is having an "off game."
Step 2: Accountability and Reflection: Ask, "What do you think about that chat?" to allow Tim to reflect on his behavior.
Step 3: Mirroring (if necessary): The teacher may provide a brief statement of his actions or mimic the behavior respectfully, ensuring there is no shame or embarrassment involved.
Step 4: Re-establishing Expectations: Ask Tim to articulate identifying classroom expectations regarding calling out, both for himself and the rest of the class.
Step 5: Solution-Focused Moving Forward: Ask, "What can we do next time?" to minimize the impact and frequency of calling out in future lessons.

It is important to remember that restorative conversations are not designed to "fix" the behavior instantly.
Students may still lapse and repeat the behavior.
Success is defined as the behavior becoming less frequent over time.
Consistency is key; by having these conversations regularly, the frequency of the problematic behavior should reduce until it becomes negligible in the classroom environment.