Introduction
Based on Tom Cavanagh’s research, the authors believe the skills the students learn in this Collection are fundamental to learning how to respond to wrongdoing and conflict nonviolently. The Collection helps students become moral people and builds their character. This Collection affords teachers a research-based, step-by-step program that is student-tested, parent-approved, teacher-friendly, and developmentally appropriate. The Collection was intentionally developed to be straight forward and time-efficient. The workshops in this Collection build upon each other or can stand-alone.
The benefit of this Collection is that children will learn concrete and applicable skills to resolve conflicts nonviolently and become intrinsically motivated to be empathetic and caring people who are more interested in reconciliation and restoration rather than retribution and vengeance. As a result, students, teachers, and parents can create a culture of care in their school. This school culture will be based on prevention, peaceful conflict resolution, and restorative justice.
This collection provides educators with a research-based program for creating a caring culture in schools that supports caring teachers. The theory of the culture of care is based on the idea of transforming conflict and wrongdoing rather than controlling behavior, because such behaviors are inevitable and need to be viewed as learning opportunities rather than interruptions to academics. In this type of culture the response to problems, particularly those involving conflict and wrongdoing, is restorative rather than punitive. The major themes for this curriculum are:
- Listening
- Solving conflicts/problems peacefully (nonviolently)
- Developing feeling identity, empathy, and team building
- Learning about prejudices and biases
The Collection is consistent with creating a safe school and gives the students valuable skills for responding to conflict and wrongdoing in elementary school and beyond. The goal of this training is to help enhance elementary schools as caring places of individualized learning, independence and responsibility, calm, and emotional and physical safety, where the problems resulting from wrongdoing and conflict are solved together in a way that heals the harm to relationships and creates new relationships.
The authors of this Collection have grounded the contents in their actual experience in an elementary school that is dedicated to peace. Tom Cavanagh did a yearlong ethnographic study of the school to learn about the meaning of peace in this context. He duplicated this study as a Fulbright Fellow in a New Zealand area school. He found the skills that form the foundation of this Collection are the key to students learning how to resolve conflicts and respond to wrongdoing nonviolently. Francis Gaebler developed the Friendship Circles training about ten years ago. Toni Zimmerman created her Feelings Circle training more recently, and Tom Cavanagh authored Peacekeeping Circles during his study. All three of these sessions were repeatedly tested with children in grades K-6.
At the core of this Collection is the concept of talking circles. Educators are looking for practical ways to apply the principles of restorative justice to the day-to-day work of schooling. They want strategies that will help create a culture of care. Circles offer a practical way for teachers to implement restorative justice practices into their classrooms and reorient the response to problems involving student behavior. Circles offer a time for children to gather together to share their personal feelings and ideas about anything that is significant to them. By showing children that their opinions count, encouraging them to safely express feelings, and make real choices educators can enhance students’ self-esteem more effectively than a system of external rewards.
The circles model for children often consists of weekly meetings lasting half an hour to 45 minutes where children sit in a circle. These sessions involve carrying out activities, games, and the practice of speaking and listening skills, while sitting in a round and using a talking stick. Circles is a group activity in which any number of people (although 4 to 20 participants is most practical) sit down together with the purpose of furthering understanding of themselves and of one another. Also circles can be used for group problem solving.
Circles are a democratic and creative approach to building the capacity of teachers and students to address wrongdoing and conflict in a nonviolent way. Circles promote positive relationships and behavior, two of the most important elements for improving learning and the smooth and harmonious running of a school.
Circles are one of those ideas that come naturally to teachers as a way of building bridges and facilitating dialogue between pupils and teachers, and between pupils themselves. Fortunately, with a growing awareness of circles, this restorative approach has gained a higher priority now in both primary and secondary schools. It’s a simple idea, but for it to work well, educators still need to know how to manage the circle and what pitfalls to avoid.
The authors bring their diverse backgrounds to this work, creating a rich foundation for this Collection. Francis Gaebler is a licensed child and family psychologist. Toni Zimmerman is a professor at Colorado State University in the field of human development and family studies and a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her special interests are in three primary areas: gender, race, and class fairness training for elementary children; gender, race, and class critical analysis of popular press and media; training marriage and family therapists to be sensitive to diversity and equality. Tom Cavanagh is a researcher in the field of education, with special interest in how we can use restorative practices in a culture of care to create safe schools, physically, emotionally, and culturally. In this environment physical and emotional safety means freedom from harm and the threat of harm; cultural safety means freedom to be who and what we are.
This Collection is divided into three workbooks: (1) Feelings Circle, (2) Friendship Circle, and (3) Peacemaking Circle. The three workbooks are designed to engage students in cooperative learning and conflict resolution in the following grades: (1) first and second grades – Feelings Circle, (2) third and fourth grades – Friendship Circle, and (3) fifth and sixth grades – Peacemaking Circle.
The emphasis for first and second graders is to learn about and express their own and others’ feelings, particularly focused on the development of empathy. Third and fourth graders continue to learn about empathy and also team building, and conflict resolution, and fifth and sixth graders focus on learning peacemaking and peacebuilding skills. The purpose of this Collection is to give students the skills they need both in school and in society to know how to resolve problems nonviolently. The curriculum is repeated for two consecutive years, creating continuity and greater insight for students. As the content has a high level of mastery, students will benefit from participating in one or more of the workbook sessions. The maximum benefit will result from students attending all three workbook sessions.
Elementary school teachers, students, counselors, social workers, psychologists, high school student volunteers, and/or parents will ideally facilitate these sessions. Each year (except the first year) a person experienced in facilitating the training will work with an inexperienced person in a training-the-trainer model.
Each session described in the three workbooks begins with mindfulness training. The purpose of this training is to bring calm to the students, parents, and teachers before beginning the skills building exercises.
The design of this Collection is deliberately simple, flexible, repetitious, and consistent. The Collection contains three distinct parts that are written as an ongoing conversation that builds over time and is consistent with the developmental process of children in grades one through six. The authors believe the Collection would be best published in four separate volumes (introduction and three workbooks) so teachers could easily hand the appropriate volume to the person who is going to lead the session. The person will receive only the material that pertains to the workbook sessions they are leading. Ideally we believe the workbooks would each have a different color and be contained in a single box that is open so the spines of the four volumes of the Collection are showing. Each workbook will contain a format for each session, handouts for teachers and parents, and teaching tips.
Intended Audience:
The intended audience for this Collection is elementary school teachers, students, counselors, social workers, psychologists, high school student volunteers, and parents. Because this guide is written in a straightforward, step-by-step manner, it is easy for anyone to implement. The Collection was developed for the classroom teacher, who will either facilitate the appropriate program or ask a teacher’s aid, counselor, social worker, student mentor, or parent/volunteer to facilitate it. The facilitator can work with the entire class or a small group.
General Outline for Sessions…..
Welcome students. Greet each by name. (Use name tags if necessary).
Quieting Techniques: Begin (if time permits) with a time to quiet students (meditation, relaxation techniques, walking meditation, yoga for children, deep breathing exercises/moment of silence).
General Goals of session: This is a good time to briefly explain what the 2-3 main things you hope each student would learn during the session. Be sure each student understands what the objectives are prior to proceeding.
Homework Review: Have students share their successes or accomplishments with other team members:
- Here is a time to practice complimenting and affirming others, catching other teammates doing well.
- Reinforce “I statements” made by students.
- Reinforce their Listening Skills during all discussions.
- Reinforce reports of successful attempts at implementing Lessons Learned in Circles
- You might establish a reward system for bringing in completed homework (a small toy from grab bag, a small snack, points toward a larger snack, etc.).
Training Activities: These activities are meant to focus on a specific skill (e.g. Active Listening, Team Building, Negotiating, etc.)
- Review the activity and goals of activity with students.
- Reinforce SAFETY & RESPECT. Clarify the safety precautions to be taken by each student were appropriate.
- Reinforce that each team member should be aware of their own safety and that of their team mates at all times.
- Session Leaders need to carefully review the activity and be aware of any possible ways injury could occur. In some activities like the Alligator Walk and Crossing the Andes, you might want to have another volunteer help you out.
Discussion: End with a review and discussion of the initial goals to see how each student and the group did with the stated goals. Help student evaluate themselves and their group/team.
At the end of each session could ask: Because of this session, what am I willing to do? What would you want to work on before next session? What will you remember most about this session?
Refreshments: Could do this during the Discussion. Bring a “healthy snack or rotate parents supplying healthy snacks.”
Allow for a brief quiet time (relaxation, meditation) of about 2-5 minutes to help students quiet themselves prior to ending the session. Here is another time to request students to rejoin class and consider doing so in a quiet manner, walking slowly back to their classroom or seats in class.
Send students away with their Homework Assignment/ Newsletter to parents and positive affirmations supporting their accomplishments this session.
Above all, HAVE FUN!