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  • 6Cs Articles
    • 1. Axe Body Spray (Critical Thinking)
    • 2. Utility Bills (Citizenship)
    • 3. Pork Roast (Creativity)
    • 4. Airplane Wheel (Character)
    • 5. Rosa Parks (Communication)
    • 6. Building Bridges (Citizenship)
    • 7. California Surfer (Character)
    • 8. Green Leader (Collaboration)
    • 9. Service Dog (Critical Thinking)
    • 10. Devious Sips (Citizenship)
    • 11. Online Shopping / Fraud (Critical Thinking)
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    • 2. Change The Game – Earn Your Leisure
    • 3. This App Can Close The Gap
    • 4. Ballet, Beauty, and Being Girly
    • 5. Born Here. Failed Six Years!
    • 6. Dwayne Johnson – Hardest Worker
    • 7. What if I took it off for you?
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Airplane wheel falls off during takeoff in Canada

High-interest reading article about CHARACTER.

An airplane wheel falls off the landing gear during take-off and the pilots are able to successfully land the plane with no injuries!

The implied takeaway message to infer is that although it’s scary being up in the air with a missing landing wheel, the pilots were able to stay in control and land the plane safely (instead of panicking.) 

Pilots are people. With training, experience, and hard work, pilots develop the mental toughness and character required to stay in control and achieve their goal of getting everyone on the ground, despite unexpected obstacles. 

This article goes well with the ASKING QUESTIONS reading strategy.

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Airplane wheel falls off during takeoff in Canada

In January 2020, a wheel fell off the landing gear of a plane during takeoff.

The flight left Montreal, Quebec but it had to return to the airport. 49 passengers and 3 crew members were onboard. The pilots did an excellent job landing the plane. No one was injured.

Tom Van-Aken was one of the passengers. He saw sparks around the tire so he made a video and posted it online. As the plane lifts off, you can see one of the two wheels under the left-wing falls off.

The passenger joked online, “I’m currently on a plane that just lost a wheel. 2020 starting off well.”

People watched this 5-second video over 140,000 times. Tom Podolec is a senior journalist at CTV News. He got more footage from the passenger that showed the plane landing. The journalist then tweeted this longer video. People watched this longer video over 1.3 million times!

Dave Cohen is a USAF pilot and flight instructor. He saw the landing video and complimented the pilot. “Awesome job holding the left gear off as long as possible… excellent technique!”

Several news outlets ran the story. Some headlines were dramatic. The headline from the New Zealand Herald was “Terrified passenger films moment wheel falls from plane.”

A spokesperson for Jazz Aviation named Manon Stuart wrote about what happened. “Our experienced pilots kept complete control of the aircraft. Our pilots are trained to react to such situations and reacted conforming to proper procedure.”

Michael Hollan is an associate editor for Fox News. In his news article, he gave more details from the airline.

“During takeoff… one of the two wheels on the left main landing gear became detached. The Dash 8-300 aircraft is equipped with six tires – two on the right landing gear, two on the left, and two on the nose wheel landing gear. The experienced pilots maintained complete control of the aircraft. Our pilots are well trained to deal with such situations and responded according to our standard operating procedures. After burning some fuel, the aircraft returned to Montreal and landed safely. There were no injuries. Emergency vehicles were called as a precautionary measure — the safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority. Our maintenance personnel in Montreal are conducting a thorough inspection of the aircraft to determine the cause and proceed with the necessary repairs.”

A news outlet contacted the passenger who made the first video. He said the landing was the most serious part. “We started to be serious and we didn’t make jokes at this time. When the landing was completed we were very happy because the pilot did a very good job.”

Character Mini-Lesson

When we say somebody has strong character, what we really mean is that person has the mental toughness to get through hard times and achieve their goals.

Anyone can learn to be more resilient and develop a habit of trying to persevere.

One way to build that mental toughness is to realize that success is based on hard work, learning, training and not giving up. This is the idea behind a Growth Mindset.

The opposite of a Growth Mindset is a Fixed Mindset which is when we believe that we succeed based on what we were born with. You either have it, or you don’t.

FYI, just because we’re in a Growth Mindset sometimes, doesn’t mean we’re always in a Growth Mindset. And, vice-versa. Sometimes, even Growth Mindset experts slip into a fixed mindset. If you find yourself in a Fixed Mindset, you can choose to put yourself back into a Growth Mindset.

When you feel like giving up, just know that you can jump from a Growth Mindset to a Fixed Mindset by adding the word “yet” to the end of a sentence. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this,” try saying, “I can’t do this, yet.” Yet helps us wonder how we could do this. It’s a shift in mindset. 

Shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is the beginning of a conversation about how to develop character. Building character takes time. When we fail and figure out a way to get up and climb over obstacles, we learn from our mistakes, but we also start to build confidence and realize that we can get through tough times. Overcoming little failures helps us build mental toughness. We start to build a habit of trying, and the more we try, the more we build character.

Reading Comprehension Questions

  1. How will this emergency have an impact on other airlines and training?
  2. Could this incident have been avoided in your opinion?
  3. How did the pilots show grit, tenacity, resilience, or perseverance?
  4. Why do you think the pilots were able to handle the stress of not having a wheel?
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Filed Under: Reading Comprehension 6Cs Article Tagged With: article-004

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Different Reading Strategies List (PDF)

Evaluating Reading Strategy: Lesson, video, handouts (that work with any text)

Evaluating Reading Strategy Lesson Plan

How to Infer – 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Figure out what the text is really saying even though it doesn’t say it like this. (Evidence from the text + your thinking = an inference) 2. Your inference cannot be directly in the text. It has to be something new that you figured out based on the text. 3. Use Somebody Wanted But So to think about the text and make inferences. 4. Use It says, I say, And so to explain your inference.

Inferring Reading Strategy Lesson Plan (Inferencing)

How to Make (Deeper) Connections - 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Connect with things you’ve read (text to text), things you’ve experienced (text to self), or things people know (text to world) 2. Avoid simple connections. Find things that are same-same but different. 3. Use one of these thought patterns: "This is like that, but… so…" or "A is like B, and B is _ so A is probably _" 4. Stop after every heading or paragraph and make a connection

Making Connections Reading Strategy Lesson Plan: How to make deeper Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World connections

4 PRO TIPS to the Repairing Comprehension Reading Strategy 1. Read a paragraph and SAY SOMETHING: Ask a question, Make a connection, Make an inference, Form an opinion 2. Does your SAY SOMETHING make sense with stuff you know about the world? If not, re-read the paragraph. Use PEEP to clarify your thinking. 3. Does your SAY SOMETHING make sense with stuff you already read in this text? If not, re-read the paragraph. Re-read the other stuff you already read.Use PEEP to figure out why it doesn’t make sense. 4. PEEP: Point, Evidence, Explanation, Point

Repairing Comprehension Reading Strategy Lesson Plan

Asking Questions Reading Comprehension Strategy - 4 PRO TIPS 1. Don't ask a question you already know the answer to. 2. Try to answer your own question. Use evidence from the text. 3. Ask lots of questions. Include higher-order thinking questions (why or how / would or might) 4. Stop after every heading or paragraph and ask a question.

Asking Questions Reading Strategy

FIND THE MAIN IDEA 4 PRO TIPS: 1. Focus on the BIG PICTURE (the entire article). Summarize the entire article in a word or phrase. What general point is the author trying to make? 2. Look for clues in key spots. (How is the text organized?) 3. Think about each paragraph. What is this paragraph about? (Where is the main idea in the paragraph? Beginning? Middle? End?) What role does this paragraph play?  4. Find the “best” main idea. The main idea is NOT always directly stated. The best idea has strong support from the beginning, middle, and end of the entire article.

Finding the Main Idea – Reading Comprehension Strategy Lesson Plan

Active Reading Strategies Lesson and Handouts: Works with any text!

Active Reading Strategies Lesson – Power Up Tool Kit

6Cs Reading Comprehension Articles

  • Axe Body Spray stops a Florida school bus due to a “hazardous materials incident”
  • Small business owner pays it forward by paying overdue utility bills for 36 families over the holidays
  • Pork roast cooked in a car during a record-breaking heat wave in Australia
  • Airplane wheel falls off during takeoff in Canada
  • Rosa Parks: Quiet Courage in Communication
  • Building Bridges between Police and Youth
  • California Surfer Breaks Stereotypes – Character Education
  • Green Leader Says It Shouldn’t Have Taken This Long – Collaboration
  • Service Dog – Is this Discrimination? (Critical Thinking)
  • Devious Sips, TikTok trends, and Active Citizenship
  • Online Shopping and Fraud – Critical Thinking – Article 011

SEL Reading Comprehension Articles

  • This US fighter pilot is terrified of flying…
  • Change The Game And Earn Your Leisure
  • This App Can Help Close The Gap
  • Ballet, Beauty, and Being Girly
  • Born Here. Failed Six Years!
  • Dwayne Johnson The Rock
  • What if I took it off for you? Reading Response Passage

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