Race, Class, and Punishment

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 18.01.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Demographics
  3. Enduring Understanding
  4. Objectives
  5. Rationale
  6. Content Background
  7. Trayvon Martin Suspended for 10 Days
  8. What are Restorative Practices?
  9. Peace Talking Circles
  10. Teaching Strategies
  11. Norms
  12. Prompts for Restorative Circle Dialogues
  13. Bibliography
  14. Student Reading List
  15. Appendix A: Implementing Standards/Common Core/State Standards
  16. Anchor Standards

This is America: Restorative Peace Circles and the decline of Suspensions and Expulsions

Sharon Monique Ponder

Published September 2018

Tools for this Unit:

Anchor Standards

Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in the Restorative Justice Circle

Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals rather than representatives of groups or cliques.

Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias.

Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion, prejudice and injustice.

Students will speak up with courage and respect when they or someone else has been hurt or wronged by bias.

Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination).

Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.

Students will identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies such as restorative justice circles and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world.

Comments:

Reginald Ponder

June 29, 2019 at 5:17 pm

The Impact of Restorative Practices

I really like the entire concept. This put part of the educational responsibility on the students. They learn to express themselves, to listen, to develop ownership for their actions and how to resolve conflict in a productive way. The exercises are exciting as they use material young people are paying attention to today while connecting it to some of our literal greats. An ingenious way to insert literal exploration into the restorative justice process. I think the entire school will need to be trained on this to minimize \\"back-sliding\\" into initial reactions. Lets say the janitor feels disrespected but is not aware of the Restorative Justice approach, he/she will lash out and may do harm to the process and the sessions we are trying to teach. Therefore we all need to be part of the process. I also think there should be strong emphasis on the fact that this is not a \\"feel good thing to do\\" but rather something that not only stops bullying but improves the learning process in so many tangible and intangible way. Finally, I love this practice but administrators must also take into account age appropriate behavior BEFORE we even get to this point. There is mush evidence that children of color are punished for age appropriate behavior when there should be no punishment at all. Many times there is no need for a circle but rather better judgment by teachers and administrators. I love this unit and can see it being effective on many fronts and can even see some expansion opportunities.

Rhinold Ponder

June 29, 2019 at 6:49 pm

Restorative Justice Moving Foward

This is a wonderful program as restorative justice practices are essential for reforming the educational environment and prospects fr children of color and children with disabilities.The implementation of Peace Circles is the beginning of cultural changes that will encourage adults to treat kids of color like learning community members as opposed to criminals. The dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline can begin here.

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey
Feedback