Vision Boarding

A vision board is a physical or digital representation of goals that someone wants to achieve. It provides students (or you!) with an opportunity to clarify and maintain focus on these goals, intrinsically using and building self awareness. A vision board can also help bring one’s goals to life through reviewing and modifying.

MATERIALS: CARDBOARD, MAGAZINE CLIPPINGS, SCISSORS, GLUE OR TAPE.

OPTIONAL: GLITTER, PAINT, MARKERS, CONSTRUCTION PAPER.

Types of Vision Boards

Opening and Allowing

Use this board if you are not quite sure what you want. Let’s say you have a broad vision of your goals, like, “I want to go to a good college,” or “I want to make a lot of money”, but you aren’t clear about the details. This also suits situations where you know what you want to change, but perhaps you aren’t sure how.

"I know EXACTLY what I want!"

Use the board when you know exactly what you want and you can pinpoint the steps you need to take or things you need to get. You are sure about how to change the things around you and you just need a bit of motivation, scheduling, and focus.

Themed

Use the board when you want to focus on a specific theme, such as “homework” or ‘a birthday party’. It’s similar to the other boards, but the objectives are narrowed to a single theme or idea.

 

Thoughtful Preparation

Give students time to think about the questions below.  A free-write might help them to go deep into answering them.

1. What parts of your life do you enjoy the most now?

2. What are your biggest goals or dreams?

3. If you could have a dream vacation, where would you like to travel to?

4. If you could choose, what kind of friends do you want to have? What do you like in your best friend(s)?

5. What kind of skills would you like to have or new activities would you like to try out?

6.What would you like to do that you haven’t done yet?

7.What kind of difference do you want to make in this world?

8. If you had control, what kind of school experience would you like to have?

 

Step-by-Step

choose a CATEGORY

Ask students to choose an area of their lives that they want to create a vision for and set out to enhance: Academic, Health, Creative/ Spiritual, Social, Family.

CHOOSE A TYPE OF VISION BOARD

Based on their answers to the questions above, allow students to choose which of the three types of vision boards above best matches their goals.

FOCUS QUESTIONS

  1. What made you the happiest this year?
  2. Name one goal you have for one of the categories.
  3. What do you need to make your goal happen?

Now… Create! Students are encouraged to express their goals in any way that feels comfortable to them.  They can caption the images, or surround an image with abstract strokes of color if that is symbolic to them, or anything else that comes to mind that is a reminder of their focus.

PRO-TIP:

Try playing some music while students work.  Compiling a class playlist is also a collaborative project that gives students ownership of the space.