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Responsive Circles
A Guide to Resolving Student Conflict and Building School Community
Designed to be extremely practical for K–12 administrators, teachers, and students, the book equips educators with the knowledge and skills needed to implement responsive circles effectively. It explores how student behavior serves as communication, how traditional discipline fails to address underlying issues, and the next steps educators can take.
A step-by-step guide to restorative classroom management
In Responsive Circles, author JR Entsminger equips educators with practical strategies to address conflict and improve student behavior through restorative practices. The book emphasizes using responsive circles to repair harm, foster empathy, and address student conflict while reducing reliance on traditional punishment. It also explores bias, social-emotional learning, and integrating restorative practices or approaches into school culture for a healthier community schoolwide.
K–12 administrators and educators can use this book to:
- Benefit from leader- and teacher-specific implementation guidance
- Understand which facilitation tools to use and why
- Receive the five steps and necessary tools for facilitating a responsive circle
- Learn to navigate responsive circle resistance and resource limitations
- Address underlying behavior issues and learn alternatives to excluding students from their school community
Related Topics
Classroom Management & BehaviorSocial-Emotional Learning
Additional Information
“Responsive Circles establishes a robust foundation for why responsive circles are needed and why they can be more effective in teaching necessary social-emotional-behavioral skills than traditional discipline. The brilliance of this book is that it provides detailed, step-by-step instructions with complementary tools to effectively and quickly implement this strategy. As a school social worker and SEL coach, I believe Responsive Circles is important reading for all educators but would be a particularly valuable tool for principals, social workers, and counselors.”
“Responsive Circles: A Guide to Resolving Student Conflict and Building School Community is an outstanding book that seamlessly connects theory and practice in addressing student conflict while effectively implementing responsive circles. What truly sets this book apart is its inclusion of practical tools and processes. These tools make responsive circles accessible and easy to implement in a school setting. These tools make Responsive Circles: A Guide to Resolving Student Conflict and Building School Community a comprehensive guide for educators and leaders alike. Whether you’re an experienced practitioner or new to responsive circles, this book is a must-read. It’s a thoughtful, inspiring, and practical road map for helping students resolve their own conflict and for creating a more empathetic and connected learning environment.”
