This unit ran July 6 – August 6, 2026 at Collins Middle School, Salem MA. Archived as taught. Not maintained. All 20 days
Day 18 · Week 5 · Build Days

Build Day 1

You pitched it. Today you build it. The Showcase is Thursday.
0

Rig your Build Sheet

2 minutes · solo · paper + pencil

One sheet, folded like a book. Cover: your name, "Day 18," the date. Two pages inside:

Page 1: BUILD NOTES your milestone at the top, progress notes below
Page 2: THE HARD PART stays blank until the end of class

No Chart Your Course today. The course is charted. You're sailing it.

○

Launch Circle

3 minutes · standing ring · then straight to work

Before a single tool comes out, one ring. One sentence each, a promise to the crew: "Today I build ___." Say it. Mean it. Break the circle. Go.

1

Open Build

35 minutes · straight to work · your folder open

Take out two things. Your pitch sheet from Pitch Day. The Journal pages you named in it.

Your pitch is your map. Build what you pitched.

  1. Top of BUILD NOTES, write your milestone: "By share-out I will have ___." Make it real. A penciled page. A verse and a chorus. A scene on its feet.
  2. Rough and real beats perfect and imaginary. Finish ugly today. Polish tomorrow.
  3. Skip the title page. Start with the hardest piece, not the prettiest one.
MILESTONE BOARD: hit your milestone, walk up, mark it by your name. Then set the next one. The room watches the board fill.
Your Project HQ →
LOG IT: As you work, jot on BUILD NOTES. What got done. What comes next. What you need.
2

One Move: Give Them a Voice

15 minutes · with your teacher · then back to work

Your person was real. You were not there. So how do you write their words without putting words in their mouth? One move. Every invented line stands on a documented fact.

  1. Write the fact. Note where it comes from.
  2. Ask: what would my person say about this?
  3. Write one line in their voice that stands on that fact.

THE FACT, from the record: 9 November 1716. Pirates take the sloop Bonetta. A witness wrote down what happened. A boy named John King, eight to eleven years old, demanded to join them. His mother could not stop him.

A line that stands on it: "My mother held my arm. I chose the pirates anyway."

A line that floats free: "I always dreamed of being famous." The record says nothing about his dreams. Cut it, or find a fact it can stand on.

The test: point at the fact under your line. No fact under it? It floats. Fix it.

Facts to stand on: the People tab →
LOG IT: Pick one fact from your own Journal. Write one line in your person's voice that stands on it. That line goes into your project today.
3

Help Stations

30 minutes · drop in when you need one · keep building between stops

Three stations open. They are pit stops, not parking spots.

TECH TABLE · front Chromebook questions, hunting the dashboard, the print list
WRITING TABLE · window side headlines, letters, labels, verses, voice lines
PERFORMANCE CORNER · back say it on your feet, block it, time it

Come with a question. Leave with a next step. Not stuck? Keep building.

✦
★

The Hard Part, Then One Sentence

10 minutes · write alone, then the circle

First, two quiet minutes. THE HARD PART page: What is the hardest part of telling this story? Two honest lines.

Then the circle. One sentence each, out loud:

SAY IT: "I am making ___ in ___'s voice."

Say it plain. No apologies. Nobody's draft is pretty today. That is the point.

★

Captain's Log

optional today · project first

Your ship is still out there. If you finish with minutes to spare, one line from your captain, dated like a sailor: "4 August 2026." If not, the log waits. Today the project comes first.

draftevidencevoice

draft = the rough early version. You make it so you can make it better · evidence = a fact you can point to in a source · voice = how your person sounds when they tell their own story