Read To Learn

For the role play activity, form groups of 4: One group member is the ‘teacher’, two are the ‘learners’ who misbehaved, and one is an ‘observer’ who will give feedback on what went well and what could have been improved to the group members after the role play.

The Restorative Meeting Role Play 

• The teacher will bring the two learners to the restorative meeting 
• The teacher will explain why the meeting is taking place (to understand and resolve the conflict) 
• The teacher will explain how the meeting will proceed; each learner will be asked the same five questions and the other learner must listen respectfully. There will be no interrupting.
• The teacher will ask each learner the same question in turn. (Do not make judgements. Don’t add any of your own opinions or ideas.) 
• After going through the first four questions the teacher will  get to the final question: What should you (both) do now to move forward from this incident? 
• The teacher will ask each student to give their suggestions.  If they are good suggestions the teacher will let their suggestions be carried out. (Examples could include the following; shaking hands, detention, picking up litter etc). If they fail to suggest good and fair resolutions, the teacher will inform them that they will have the meeting again later that day or the next day and in the meantime, they should reflect on what they did, why they did it, how they affected others and how to resolve the situation in a fair way. 

Round up:  The teacher will ask the learners how they feel now. Check to see if they feel 

• that their voices were heard fairly
• more self-confident
• respected 
• happy that the meeting allowed them to express their ideas
• that the conflict was resolved fairly

Finally, thank everyone for participating in the meeting, and for behaving in a positive way.