Honestly, you could teach anything, any which way you wanted with this novel! I have pages upon pages of notes on what I'd want to do with this. Here are some of my idea. Sometimes I ask questions because I think a certain passage or idea would be good to use, but I haven't thought of a way how!

• Themes to teach with this novel: racism, identity, stereotyping, culture, country citizenship, murder, democracy, violence
• You can do great things with people's names in this novel, the meaning of their names and how theirs names suit their characters or represent certain themes in the novel. For example, how does Zits interactions and discussion with "Justice" become a reflection or Justice's name. Why is Justice the character chosen to be call Justice?
• There is also great discussion between guns (violence) vs. justice (bottom of pg. 34 & pg. 30). These two concepts also represent the contradicting sides of Zits - his sometimes violent side and his poetic justice. What is Justice the person and the idea of justice teaching Zits about his life? What does this essentially teach us about justice and contradictions in society?
• Here are some other things I call "Optional Things To Use". I might not have figured out ways to use them yet, but I think they are saying something important:

-Pg. 41: his change in idea of "cops"; how this new attitude toward cops changes from his ideas in the beginning

-"99 Kinds of Shame" (4) - can we think of 99 kinds? does Zits refer to 99 ways by the end of the novel? He also later says "100 versions of himself" (pg. 58) some connection between these two?

-lots and lots of pop culture references: Arnold Scwarzzenager, TV channels, band names

-What can we do with all of his morbid, yet brutally honest, thoughts?

-"Indian Child Welfare Act" (4) - there is so much in this novel to learn about Indian culture and a person's identity. The ICWA is only one example of things Zits mentions; Indian Culture & Stereotypes - beginning of Ch. 7

-"Hate can be empowering" (22). I thought that the discussion he had with Justice about what it means to be empowered is extremely revelant. The words "power" and "empowering" come back and forth even when Justice is gone.

-the "white kid" from jail & group home - Justice - significance of him being white? "invincible"/invisible (bot. 31)

-not sure this would be a good activity but it's worth a shot: analyze the picture on the front cover before reading and make a prediction. This picture is very well chosen with the two guns and the shooting target.

-comments about FBI (51-52) and how this relates to his conversations with Justice about our country

-Pg. 52: difference between how we act, our beliefs, and what we're taught -> the contradictions

-his idea of Heaven vs. his idea Hell comes up a lot (ex. pg. 65)

Co-curricular assignments can be created with the Social Studies/American History and English departments regarding the history of colonization and the Americanization of Indians. The American Indian Education Association

• has information pertaining to history of Native American Education in the United States. An interesting way to incorporate this topic in the classroom would be to begin with Captain Richard H. Pratt's quote regarding the education of Native Americans, "Kill the Indian, and Save the Man."**

The Justice System: In the beginning of the novel, Zits talks a lot about his feelings about the police, he ends up in jail a few times, him and his friend "Justice" discuss the justice system, when he becomes "Hank" he is a corrupt FBI agent....all these examples are good ways for a Social Studies teacher to teach the basic concepts of the Justice System ad the English teacher to analyze the contradicitions within it

Poetry

The sparse language of Flight provides for many instance of found poetry:

Call me Zits.

Everybody calls me zits.

That's not my real name

of course.

My real name

isn't important.

Round that out with some intended poetry from Native American poets like Joy Harjo <http://www.joyharjo.com/> and this very cool unit from the California SCORE project <http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/nampoet/poettg.htm>: "This supplementary unit is part of an eighth grade, interdisciplinary Native American archaeology unit, but may be used in upper elementary or high school humanities or American history classes. It is a mini-study of free verse, sensory words used in Native American poetry, and paraphrasing. Students will read and study free verse poetry through Native American Poetry and write a free verse poem. (The poetry used is from the California-adopted eighth grade literature text, Prentice Hall Literature Silver, but any Native American poetry may be used.)"

Students can also play with the language of found poetry by illuminating their texts through linking on the internet and posting them.

A very valuable poem to look at is Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  There are some interesting parrallels that can be drawn between both Zit's father in Chapter 17 and his unwilling guest in story telling and the Mariner and the Wedding Guest. Both feature an interaction where one party is drawn unwillingly into the other's story and life and have characters that have the urge to rid themselves of something, to tell a story in effect. What happens after the Mariner tells his story? What happens after the man tells Zit's father his story?

Film

In teaching a novel like Flight it is extremely important to be aware and also sensitive to the different stereotypes that represent Native Americans. In researching information about how to incorporate films on Native Americans with Flight I came across this site:  http://www.understandingprejudice.org/teach/native.htm. This website basically explains the dos and don’ts about teaching the history of Native Americans.

Some Films That Can Be Used:

         -Homeland: A Documentary on the use and abuse of Native American reservations

         -Memento: A film whose main character has amnesia and cannot remember where he is or what he is doing when he wakes up.  His reactions to realizing that he cannot remember things remind me a lot of how Zits reacts when he realizes he has time-traveled to another place

         -Seven: For use with the 7 Deadly Sins (ex. Jim's adultery)

         -The Innocent: Italian film based on adulterous lives of a couple (Jim & his wife) and the husband wants to change his adultery (Zit's reation to Jim's behavior)

        -Me, Myself and Irene: A film about a character with 2 personalities (Zits has multiple)

         -The opening sequence to the film Risky Buisness. The point of view of this, through a handheld wobbly camera with parents talking at the main character can provide students with creative ways to approach any of their own film tasks on the project.

Sherman Alexie's film Smoke Signals

From teachingliterature.org, this page has a number of links and ideas for teaching Sherman Alexie's short story "This is what it means to say Phoenix Arizona" from his collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.  Click here and scroll down to the part of Chapter 10 that talks about Alexie.It is full of lesson ideas, resources, supplementary materials, webquests and more.

Webquests

Check out some Webquests designed for Methods Two.  Teacher can implement or "tweek" some of these to use in their own Flight units.