Circle Forward: Building a Restorative School Community
By Carolyn Boyes-Watson and Kay Pranis
Circle Forward is a resource guide designed to help teachers, administrators, students and parents incorporate the practice of Circles into the everyday life of the school community. This resource guide offers comprehensive step–by-step instructions for how to plan, facilitate and implement the Circle for a variety of purposes within the school environment. It describes the basic process, essential elements and a step-by-step guide for how to organize, plan, and lead Circles. It also provides over one hundred specific lesson plans and ideas for the application of Circles in the following areas of school life:
• Learning and establishing a Circle practice
• Establishing and affirming community norms
• Teaching and learning in Circle
• Building connection and community
• Promoting social-emotional skills
• Facilitating important but difficult conversations
• Working together as adults
• Engaging parents and the wider community
• Developing students as leaders in peer Circles
• Using Circles for restorative discipline
