Ensuring that all students feel included, heard, and reflected through restorative literacy comprehension.
In her book, Restorative Literacies: Creating a Community of Care in Schools, Deborah L. Wolter merges multiple literacies with cognitive and metacognitive processes of reading proficiency, fluency, comprehension, and writing effectiveness. With 30 years of experience in education, Deborah walks the reader through inspired, restorative actions that will strengthen students’ understanding of core literary concepts. Educators learn how to incorporate individual students’ stories so they experience racially, culturally, linguistically, and economically responsive instruction in multiple forms of literacies. Restorative Literacies shows us how to build and strengthen positive relationships between readers’ backgrounds and perspectives; their variable skills, proficiencies, and fluencies; the multiple texts they encounter; and the authors of such texts. Deborah invites readers to find peace in the messiness of creation, understanding, and literacy, transforming the classroom into a space where creative interpretation thrives and students find value in the text and amongst themselves.
Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: Schools can be busy and even chaotic places for some students. As a learner myself, I wanted to support educators in fostering inclusive spaces where students are fully heard in their language and literacy growth.
Q: What sets your book apart from others about reading and literacy?
A: The book makes connections between literacies and unwanted behavior in schools. Restorative literacies involve noticing and listening—and responding—in order to disrupt deficit mindsets about literacy development in all ages and grades.
Q: In what ways have readers told you they are using your book?
A: Educators have told me they are using this book as a resource for practical application in addition to their restorative justice initiatives. Equity teams have found this book encouraging, particularly in the light of state mandates and book challenges. Individual teachers and reading consultants have shared how they’ve paused, reflected, and focused more on student voice, choice, ownership, and empowerment.
Q: What are the three most important things you hope readers take away from the book?
A: For one, all readers and writers have a rich repertoire of languages and literacies that may or may not always match the academic or “school-like” literacies.
Secondly, all readers and writers are learners. Reading and writing are delightfully explorative, messy, and do not always fall into perfect developmental stages or instructional levels.
Lastly, all readers and writers have power and a strong sense of justice. There are multiple ways for readers and writers to grow through an intentional system of response, repair, and restoration in an educational setting.
