Restorative Literacies: Creating a Community of Care in Schools

by Deborah L Wolter, H. Richard Milner IV (Foreword)

Through eight compelling stories of restorative literacies, Wolter explores the complex relationships among cognition, metacognition, identity, behavior in schools, and literacies. Based on the principles of restorative justice, restorative literacies are designed to help educators repair harm, restore relationships, and expand the concept of literacy for some of our most disenfranchised and disengaged students. Restorative literacies are not just about growing readers and writers per se. They are about creating a community of care that involves students, teachers, administrators, and families so that all students experience racially, culturally, linguistically, and economically responsive instruction in multiple forms of literacies. Drawing on the author’s rich experiences cultivating a love of reading among her students and studying the practices of other educators, Restorative Literacies advances a provocative set of examples about centering the voice and stories of people in our quest to humanize and reimagine how we care for, about, and with others. Book

160 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2021

About the author

Deborah L. Wolter is a retired literacy consultant for Student Intervention and Support Services in Ann Arbor (Michigan) Public Schools. She has worked for over 20 years with public school teachers and their students from all walks of life (including those in special education, Title I, response to intervention, and English language learners) and who were in different places of exploring multiple languages, literacies, and linguistics. Prior to that, she worked as an early childhood education teacher for 10 years. Deborah completed a BA degree in early childhood and elementary education and an MA degree in reading from Eastern Michigan University. She also completed an additional endorsement in learning disabilities from Madonna University. Deborah has written several papers on literacy and family literacy for professional journals. Restorative Literacies, co-published with Teachers College Press and International Institute for Restorative Practices, is her third book. She is author of Reading Upside Down: Identifying and Addressing Opportunity Gaps in Literacy Instruction, published by Teachers College Press in June 2015. Being deaf since birth, she also offers a unique insider’s perspective on opportunity gaps. Her last book, Ears, Eyes, and Hands: Reflections on Language, Literacy, and Linguistics, published by Gallaudet University Press, was released December 2018. A future memoir, A Search for Stories, is currently in the works.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Restorative Literacies is a timely and wonderful book on a topic that couldn't be more important. What makes it stand out from similar books is that it has both deep and thorough research and equally deep practical knowledge and experience from an entire career spent in k-12 classrooms. This combination is rare, as is Wolter's ability to get right into what matters when it comes to building a classroom that uplifts, inspires, and restores. This is an essential read for getting ready for the 2021-2022 school year and beyond!

[Ivy Sitkoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scholarly but very readable and timely professional book with some intriguing ideas.

[Paula Boyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This research-based, professional book skillfully tackles the problem of educators, parents, and students who simply accept today's education as the status quo without giving any consideration to the outliers who may be coming to school each day feeling rejected, ignored, or misunderstood from the start. Each chapter of the book follows a student who is feeling this way--from elementary to high school--and the teacher who begins to understand them and look at what is failing the student and why. Invariably, the teacher becomes more informed about restorative literacies and moves beyond the "basic skills" of reading and writing. According to Wolter, "Noticing the language of stories, compassionate listening, expanding the concept of literacy and what it means to be literate, restoring relationships, repairing harm, strengthening agency, developing leadership and sustainability, and most of all, recognizing literacies and identities are essential steps toward restorative literacies." This book was very interesting, although somewhat redundant in places, but also provides hope for educators who want to make a difference for all of their students.