Flight Plan
Although students aren’t always in control of what happens to them or how they spend their time, they’re always in control of how they approach situations and relationships. How will they choose to treat the student who has no friends? How will they choose to treat the student with a million friends? How will they choose to approach the mathematics test? How will they choose to approach the mathematics teacher?
This activity helps students distinguish between what is meaningful to them and how they want to make their lives meaningful at school. It works well at the beginning of the year as a way for students to get to know each other (Porosoff, 2016).
Materials for Each Student
For this activity, each student will need a pen, sheet of 8½ × 11–inch paper, and the “Examples of Values” handout (page 214).
Sample Script
The following sample script gives an idea of how this activity might work in your classroom.
Today we’re going to think about what makes our lives meaningful.
On your paper, I’m going to ask you to list some of the people and things that are important to you. I’m going to make a list too. Try thinking about: (Pauses between prompts to give students time to write.)
• Family members you have a particularly strong connection to
• Close friends
• Teachers or coaches who have made a difference
• Groups that matter to you, like a dance troupe or sports team
• Significant activities, such as athletics or arts
• Places that matter to you, whether they’re in your neighborhood or places you’ve traveled to
• Areas of knowledge you’re curious about
• Issues you’re passionate about
• Important skills or processes you’ve learned
• Objects you cherish, maybe because of who gave them to you or how you got them
• Things you’ve made
• Books that had an impact
• Memories you want to hold on to
Take a few more moments to write.
Now we’re going to do something a little weird. We’re going to take the papers we wrote our lists on and fold them into airplanes. Fold them with the words on the inside so they can be private. If you already know how to make a paper airplane, go ahead and make it the way you know. If you don’t know how, you can either get help from a classmate, or let me show you the way I learned. There are so many kinds of paper airplanes! (See figure 1.1.)
Source: Ushakaron, 2011.
Figure 1.1: Make a paper airplane.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Imagine that this plane represents your life. Write your name on the plane’s tail, to represent that it’s your life. On board are the important experiences you’ve had so far. Take a moment to hold the plane of your life and think about your cargo: the people, places, things, ideas, and experiences that are important to you right now. What’s it like to think about all that cargo on board the plane of your life?
Notice that the cargo you have now might not be there your whole life. Some topics will become less important to you in the future. Memories might fade. Things can get lost, stolen, or ruined, or they can feel less important over time. Places can change, or we can lose access to them or outgrow them in some way. And people who matter to us can leave or we can leave them, or our relationships can change.
I want to acknowledge that for some of you, just thinking about the possibility of loss can hurt or feel weird. If I wrote about people and things I really care about, I might not want to think about losing them or even be able to imagine them becoming less important. But if you’re feeling upset or weird, that’s a sign that what you wrote about genuinely matters to you. (Pauses if students want to share reactions.)
Notice, too, that you’ll take on new cargo throughout your life. You will learn new things, make new friends, and develop new interests and ideas. What might that be like?
We’re going to fly our planes soon. What might happen when we all fly them at the same time? (Elicits lots of responses and points out how each flight can represent an outcome in life: We might crash into each other [have conflict], crash-land [fail despite our best efforts], get stuck and need help, fly where we want to go [achieve exactly what we want], or try to fly straight and end up making a stunt loop [succeed in an unexpected way].)
On my count, let’s fly these things. One … two … three!
Now, I’m going to ask you to take someone else’s plane back to your seat. Don’t unfold it or peek inside.
How does it feel to have another person’s plane?
In a few moments, you’re going to fly your classmate’s plane. What are some of the situations, here at school, where someone else’s plane will be in your hands, so to speak? (Pauses if students want to share reactions.)
On my count again, we’ll fly each other’s planes. One … two … three!
Now find your own plane again. Think about how you want to pilot the plane of your life—not where you want to fly but how. How do you want to approach your classes? Your friends? Your classmates who aren’t your friends? How do you want to treat your teachers? How do you want to treat yourself? How do you want to behave toward your families and communities?
For some people, it’s hard to think of words that describe how they want to live, so I’m going to give you a handout that you can use. You can also make up your own words. (Gives out “Examples of Values” handout [page 214] and reviews it with students.)
On the wings of your plane, write words that describe how you want to pilot your life. How can you enact these qualities right here at school? How would you like to enact your values more fully?
So we might lose some of our cargo, and we might take on new cargo. What we get in life isn’t always in our control. We might have a really well-thought-out flight plan, but where our lives go isn’t always in our control either. But how we pilot our planes is always in our control.
So let’s each decide how we want to pilot our planes and fly them again. Ready? One … two … three!
Follow-Up
If your students save their airplanes (or if you collect and save them), you can return the planes to your students at a later date and ask if the values they wrote on the outside still feel salient. How have their values changed? How have they lived
