Mentor Unit Packages · Source pages 26–36
UNITS
Units 2–8 complete packages
UNITS
Tab 06 / 11 · Per-Unit Cards U2–U8
UNITS
One card per unit, U2–U8, then that unit's week schedule, the full Reading Guide, Debate Questions, and Document Study. Each unit's five Debate Questions are a menu: the card marks which are priority for the Forge debate; the rest are warm-ups, essays, or discussion prompts.
11 Tabs
START
WHY
MENTORS
WEEKS
CYCLE
UNITS
WORKSHOPS
FINALE
PROTOCOLS
FADE
DICT
UNITS · opener
Units — How to Read This Section
UNITS · Intro
This section covers all eight units two ways. Unit 1 (Project Hail Mary) gets the fully-worked treatment: a Reading Guide, five Debate Questions, and a Document Study, walked through live in the WEEKS tab. Units 2–8 each open with a one-page card, the unit at a glance: when it runs, the book and trait, the fade phase, which debate questions to prioritize, the signature failure for this unit and its fix, the reading-window stress note, and any workshop overlay, followed by that unit's own week schedule (Arms Room, Forge, Tavern), full Reading Guide, Debate Questions, and Document Study. Pair each card with that unit's Reading-Guide-[Book] and Unit-[N]-Debate-Questions pages right after it.
The eight books, at a glance
| Unit | Trait | Book | Fade phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| U1 | Discipline | Project Hail Mary | Demo |
| U2 | Perseverance | Little Women | Handoff |
| U3 | Interdependence | The Boys in the Boat | Warm Fade |
| U4 | Resilience | Pride and Prejudice | Warm Fade |
| U5 | Acceptance | A Man for All Seasons | Independent |
| U6 | Courage | All the Light We Cannot See | Independent |
| U7 | Hope | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Emergency Only |
| U8 | Moral Courage | A Good Man Is Hard to Find | Emergency Only |
Reading order is the spineRead Unit 1’s full package next, it’s the fully-worked example the rest of the year leans on. From Unit 2 on, each unit follows the same three-week rhythm, new book, a little less mentor each time.
UNITS · Intro
Reading Guides
U1 · PROJECT HAIL MARY
U1
DISCIPLINE
Project Hail Mary
The Forge question Did Grace follow his mission, or betray it?
Five reading days · mentor view, students do not see the “What happens” column
| Day / read | What happens (mentor only) | Focus question · thread |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 The Awakening Ch 1–5 | Grace wakes with total amnesia, connected to tubes and robot arms. He doesn't know his name, his mission, or why he's on a strange ship. | Focus. What does Grace’s body know before his mind does? What training reveals itself before his conscious memory returns? Thread. He tests his environment, counting, measuring, recording, before he knows why. Where does that method come from? |
| Day 2 The Solitary Scientist Ch 6–10 | Grace works alone on the ship. He discovers Astrophage, FIGURES out the ship's DESIGN (it's a centrifuge), and begins to understand his mission: find out why Tau Ceti isn't dying. | Focus. When does Grace shift from reacting to his circumstances to acting on them? What triggers that shift? Thread. Days alone: no accountability, no deadline, no audience. He could stop at any time. What keeps him working? |
| Day 3 First Contact Ch 11–16 | Grace establishes contact with the alien ship. He names the alien "Rocky." They build a shared vocabulary across species, across senses (Rocky is blind, using sound/sonar), and across incompatible environments. | Focus. How do two beings with nothing in common, different biology, senses, home worlds, build enough trust to rely on each other? Thread. They work for days before they can share one sentence. What sustains effort when progress is invisible? |
| Day 4 Arrival & Discovery Ch 17–23 | Grace and Rocky travel together to the Tau Ceti system. They arrive at the planet Adrian and analyze its atmosphere. | Focus. The solution comes from combined observation, not lone genius. What does Grace contribute that Rocky can’t, and vice versa? Thread. The breakthrough takes months of sampling and failed hypotheses. Is the discipline in the moment, or in the work behind it? |
| Day 5 The Final Choice Ch 24–end | The Taumoeba strains fail in high-nitrogen environments. Grace breeds new strains, but the mutated Taumoeba escapes containment and infects Rocky's ship. | Focus. When does Grace know what he will do, and when does the reader know? Thread. His final choice breaks his mission parameters. Is discipline following the plan, or following the goal when the plan no longer serves it? |
U1 · 1/2
U1 · Discipline Journal
Reading Guides
What students keep — Project Hail Mary
THE DISCIPLINE JOURNAL
Each student flags 3 moments where discipline (or its absence) shapes the outcome: their Compress (C): the trunk, not the leaves. For each moment they name what actually drove it.
| # | What happened | Discipline, conditioning, or something else? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 |
Definitions students use
Discipline, choosing to continue the hard thing when the easy thing is available and you know the difference. Conditioning, a trained response that fires automatically, without conscious choice. Something else, curiosity, fear, love, hope, or habit. Discipline is one lens on this book, not the only one.
At the Arms Room
Ask one focus question from the facing page aloud to confirm depth, not just completion. A student who read will have a moment flagged; a student who skimmed will reach for the plot.
U1 · 2/2
Debate Questions
U1 · PROJECT HAIL MARY
U1
DISCIPLINE
Did Grace follow his mission, or betray it? Priority Q1 & Q3; Q2/Q4/Q5 work as essays or warm-ups. First unit: keep register accessible.
Q1, The Final Choice priority: central debate
“He saves Earth, but doesn’t come home, and never even tries. Is that discipline, or the moment discipline stopped mattering?”
Hook (5 min). Write: if finishing a different good thing became the only way to help a friend, would finishing the original job still mean going home? Then open with Grace’s choice.
Position A. He was sent to collect data and bring it home that was the deal. Staying with Rocky was choosing attachment over the job he was trained for.
Position B. The mission was never “collect data,” it was “save Earth.” Real discipline is staying loyal to the goal even when the plan under it has to change.
Research: mid-execution scope changes in search-and-rescue/expeditions; rule vs. the reason for the rule.
Position A. He was sent to collect data and bring it home that was the deal. Staying with Rocky was choosing attachment over the job he was trained for.
Position B. The mission was never “collect data,” it was “save Earth.” Real discipline is staying loyal to the goal even when the plan under it has to change.
Research: mid-execution scope changes in search-and-rescue/expeditions; rule vs. the reason for the rule.
Q2, The Body That Remembers
“Grace’s hands know how to test and measure before his mind catches up. Discipline, or something wearing its clothes?”
Hook (5 min). Name one thing you do correctly without thinking about how you learned it. Is doing it well proof of discipline, or proof discipline once happened and isn’t needed now?
Position A. It’s discipline trained so thoroughly it survives even losing his memory of why he has it.
Position B. By the book’s own definition, discipline requires knowing the easy option exists. Amnesiac Grace isn’t choosing anything: that’s conditioning, not discipline.
Research: habit formation/procedural memory; does discipline require present-tense awareness?
Position A. It’s discipline trained so thoroughly it survives even losing his memory of why he has it.
Position B. By the book’s own definition, discipline requires knowing the easy option exists. Amnesiac Grace isn’t choosing anything: that’s conditioning, not discipline.
Research: habit formation/procedural memory; does discipline require present-tense awareness?
Q3, No One Is Watching priority: warmer, pairs with Q1
“For days Grace works alone with no deadline, no audience, no one who’d know if he stopped. What kept him going?”
Hook (5 min). If no one would ever find out whether you finished something hard, would you still finish it? Write, don’t share yet.
Position A. The truest test of discipline is exactly this: no supervisor, no grade. The habit was built with witnesses; it doesn’t need one to keep running.
Position B. Call it survival instinct or fear of a slow death alone in space. The alternative to working was dying: that’s necessity dressed up as virtue.
Research: solo endurance workers (sailors, polar researchers) on their own motivation; intrinsic vs. extrinsic discipline.
Position A. The truest test of discipline is exactly this: no supervisor, no grade. The habit was built with witnesses; it doesn’t need one to keep running.
Position B. Call it survival instinct or fear of a slow death alone in space. The alternative to working was dying: that’s necessity dressed up as virtue.
Research: solo endurance workers (sailors, polar researchers) on their own motivation; intrinsic vs. extrinsic discipline.
U1 · 1/2
Debate Questions
U1 · PROJECT HAIL MARY (cont.)
Q4, Building Trust Across a Total Stranger
“Grace and Rocky share no language, biology, or senses. What kind of effort builds enough trust to risk their lives on each other?”
Hook (5 min). Think of explaining something important to someone with almost no shared context. What did that cost you?
Position A. Building a relationship from zero shared ground, one confirmed signal at a time without giving up: that’s discipline applied to something harder than any solo task.
Position B. They persist because each needs the other to survive, and something like real friendship grows. Naming that “discipline” flattens what’s happening.
Research: field linguistics building shared vocabulary from zero; what builds trust under shared high-stakes pressure.
Position A. Building a relationship from zero shared ground, one confirmed signal at a time without giving up: that’s discipline applied to something harder than any solo task.
Position B. They persist because each needs the other to survive, and something like real friendship grows. Naming that “discipline” flattens what’s happening.
Research: field linguistics building shared vocabulary from zero; what builds trust under shared high-stakes pressure.
Q5, Where the Discovery Actually Lives
“Taumoeba isn’t found in one flash of genius. It comes from months of failed samples. Where does the discipline live?”
Hook (5 min). Think of something presented as an “overnight success.” What actually happened right before that nobody shows?
Position A. The discovery gets the credit, but it’s built on the discipline of showing up for the failed attempts. Without that, there’s no breakthrough to point to.
Position B. Endless effort without discernment to notice what works is just noise. The real discipline is the trained attention that lets you see the one result that matters.
Research: “accidental” discoveries (penicillin, microwave) and the systematic work that preceded them.
Position A. The discovery gets the credit, but it’s built on the discipline of showing up for the failed attempts. Without that, there’s no breakthrough to point to.
Position B. Endless effort without discernment to notice what works is just noise. The real discipline is the trained attention that lets you see the one result that matters.
Research: “accidental” discoveries (penicillin, microwave) and the systematic work that preceded them.
Mentor notes
The room’s first Forge debate: spend extra time on format before content. Q1 is the anchor, already set up by the reading guide; run it last, after warming up on Q2 or Q3. Q2/Q3 are the gentlest on-ramps (no interpersonal stakes). Q4 previews Unit 2’s partnership theme: keep the discipline framing tight. Q5 is the best essay alternative. All five can run as Socratic seminar topics.
U1 · 2/2
Document Study
U1 · McRAVEN · MAKE YOUR BED
U1
DISCIPLINE
William H. McRaven, Make Your Bed (2017), Ch. One, the bed inspection. Read from the Document Study Reader.
The document is the floor of the evidence, not the ceiling.
The document
William McRaven spent 37 years as a Navy SEAL. Make Your Bed grew out of a 2014 commencement speech, built around ten small lessons from SEAL training. The first lesson comes from the very start of that training: every morning, in a bare barracks room, McRaven and his classmates had to make their bed to an exact standard, checked bed by bed by an instructor, down to a quarter bounced off the blanket to test how tight it was. Making the bed perfectly earned no praise. It was simply expected, every day, whether or not anyone would ever notice. Years later, McRaven contrasts this habit with something he witnessed directly: Saddam Hussein, in the small room where McRaven's soldiers held him after capture, never once made his own cot.
Close-read questions
1. No praise, and it still matters. McRaven says making the bed correctly “was not going to be an opportunity for praise. It was expected of me.” Why do a thing perfectly every single day when no one rewards it and almost no one will ever notice?
2. The smallest possible task. Of everything SEAL training could have started with, why a bed? What does getting one tiny thing exactly right teach a person that a bigger task wouldn’t?
3. The hospital bed. Recovering from the parachute accident, the first thing McRaven did was pull the sheets tight so the hospital bed “looked presentable,” his “way of showing that I had conquered the injury.” How is making a bed you’re sick in different from making one in training? What is the habit doing for him there?
4. Saddam’s cot. McRaven notes “with some sense of amusement” that Saddam Hussein never made his bed. Why include that one small detail about a man who once ran a country? What is he claiming an unmade bed reveals?
U1 · DS 1/2
Document Study
U1 · McRAVEN (cont.)
Anchor-bridge · Project Hail Mary
5. Alone on the Hail Mary, Grace runs procedures and solves problems by trained habit, sometimes before he even remembers who he is. Is Grace’s discipline the same as McRaven’s made bed, a habit built to hold when no one is watching, or something different? Find a place in the book where a drilled habit carries Grace when feeling wouldn’t have.
6. McRaven’s bed has no audience; Grace’s discipline plays out with literally no one in the solar system to see it. Does discipline done for no audience count for more, or is an unwitnessed habit just a habit? Argue from both.
The trait link, why this scene is discipline
| Moment | Face of discipline | The hard question it raises |
|---|---|---|
| The inspection | A standard with no audience, done perfectly whether or not it's noticed | Does discipline require someone to be watching, or does it only count when no one is? |
| The one constant | Repetition across every circumstance, hospital bed, war-zone cot, no exceptions | Is discipline the habit itself, or the refusal to make exceptions for hard circumstances? |
| Saddam's cot | The absence of the habit in someone powerful | Can you tell something true about a person from one small, unwatched habit? |
Discipline is the trait because nothing about a perfectly made bed is dramatic. It earns no medal and saves no one. The unit's live question sits inside that smallness: if a habit like this never gets noticed and never gets rewarded, what is it actually for, and would you still do it if you knew for certain no one would ever check?
Mentor prep
1. Students read this study themselves before class, from the Document Study Reader. Read the chapter once yourself, through the Saddam Hussein contrast, so the scene is fresh when you lead the questions.
2. This is the room's first document study. Budget a few extra minutes to explain what a document study is and how it's used later, at the Forge debate and in the Researcher's brief. The content here is deliberately gentle; the format is the real thing being taught.
3. Hold the frame on the smallness of the task, not on SEAL training itself. The temptation is to let the room get excited about military toughness. Keep steering back to the bed, an ordinary, boring, repeatable act, as the actual site of the discipline being studied.
4. McRaven's own closing paragraph (the “life is hard” passage) states the lesson directly. If a student leads with it, don't let it stand in for the work: let the close-read questions draw the same idea out of the scene, in the students' own words, instead of handing it to them pre-stated.
5. Citation format: (McRaven, Make Your Bed, Ch. 1, “quoted phrase”).
2. This is the room's first document study. Budget a few extra minutes to explain what a document study is and how it's used later, at the Forge debate and in the Researcher's brief. The content here is deliberately gentle; the format is the real thing being taught.
3. Hold the frame on the smallness of the task, not on SEAL training itself. The temptation is to let the room get excited about military toughness. Keep steering back to the bed, an ordinary, boring, repeatable act, as the actual site of the discipline being studied.
4. McRaven's own closing paragraph (the “life is hard” passage) states the lesson directly. If a student leads with it, don't let it stand in for the work: let the close-read questions draw the same idea out of the scene, in the students' own words, instead of handing it to them pre-stated.
5. Citation format: (McRaven, Make Your Bed, Ch. 1, “quoted phrase”).
U1 · DS 2/2
Units
UNIT 2
U2
PERSEVERANCE
Little Women
WEEKS 5–7OCT 13 / 20 / 27FADE: HANDOFF
Lens
What perseverance costs the people around you, not just you.
Priority questions
Q2 (The Cost) is the formal in-class debate; Q4 (The Ledger) is the emotional anchor; Q1 (The Right Call) warms up. (Order: Q2, Q4, Q1.)
Affirmative position
(Q2) Jo's perseverance was selfish, she left for New York while Beth was already declining, and it took Beth's death to make her quit her ambition.
Signature failure → fix
The debate lives in the back half of the book, which is exactly where students are most likely to have skimmed or fallen behind. Fix: at the Arms Room reading check, ask one specific plot-anchor question from the final reading days to surface who has actually finished before the Forge.
Reading note
Little Women is long (~500 pp) and runs back-to-back with Project Hail Mary, the heaviest reading stretch of the year. Send the Project Hail Mary reading guide to families in August so students arrive Week 1 having read it.
Workshop overlay
Forge Workshop 1 replaces Story Forge at the Week 7 Tavern (Oct 27).
Handoff note
The first unit students moderate. Forge Coach sits beside the moderator with a whisper-card, present, but not running it.
UNITS · 41
Week 5
WEEK 5 · ARMS ROOM
Week 5: U2 — Arms Room
SESSION TYPE: INVESTIGATE · MENTOR VISIBILITY: HANDOFF — FORGE COACH BESIDE MODERATOR, WHISPER-CARD
Pre-class setup
Confirm reading guide Day 1–2 (Ch. I–XXI: "The Ambition" + "The Cost") was due tonight.
Prepare Q2 hook materials: one slip of paper per student.
Print Evidence Map templates and extra blank ballots.
Have Q2 debate text ready to display or read aloud.
Confirm the student moderator for this unit's Forge; print the whisper-card.
Reading check (top of class)
• Cold-call one student: "In 'Castles in the Air,' what does each sister say she wants, and what arrives right after?" (Correct: Meg wants a fine home; Jo wants fame as an author; Beth wants only to stay home; Amy wants to be a great artist. Then a telegram arrives, their father is ill.)
• Ask one focus question from Day 1 or Day 2 to confirm depth, not just completion.
Hook
Name something you’re pursuing that you’d set aside if a family member needed you. Would you? Jo will face exactly that choice by the end of this book.
Minute by minute
| Time | What happens | Your job |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:05 | Arrival. Reading check. | Forge Coach asks the plot-anchor question. Text Coach reviews evidence quickly. |
| 0:05–0:25 | Document Study discussion (Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning) | Students arrive having pre-read from the Document Study Reader. Mentor leads the close-read questions, still mentor-led through U4. |
| 0:25–0:35 | Hook: Q2 Cost prompt. Students write one sentence, share. | Weaver runs. Forge Coach times. |
| 0:35–0:55 | Evidence Forge: quote-mining for both sides of Q2, at least 3 quotes per side. | Text Coach circulates and spot-checks; verifies quotes are attributed to the correct chapter. |
| 0:55–1:00 | Break | |
| 1:00–1:10 | Argument Sharpen: pair check. | Text Coach spot-checks. Weaver listens for quality. |
| 1:10–1:20 | Role assignment, first unit a student moderates. Whisper-card handed to the student moderator. | Forge Coach sits beside the moderator from this unit on; does not run the room. |
| 1:20–1:30 | Prep deadline stated in days and hours. | Forge Coach: "Evidence packet due [day] at [time]." |
Homework to check
Day 3–4 reading (Ch. XXII–XLI, "New Territory" + "The Breaking Point") before next Arms Room check.
Jury: Evidence Map with 2 quotes per side + 1 sentence each, submitted 48 hours before Forge.
WEEKS 5–7 · 1/3
Week 6
WEEK 6 · FORGE
Week 6: U2 — Forge
SESSION TYPE: DEBATE · MENTOR VISIBILITY: HANDOFF — FORGE COACH BESIDE MODERATOR, WHISPER-CARD
Pre-class setup
Confirm the student moderator is ready; timer checked; whisper-card in hand.
Prepare Q4 hook materials: two columns on board, "What Amy sacrifices" / "What Jo sacrifices."
Print ballots; confirm jury Evidence Maps received.
Have Q2 and Q4 debate texts ready.
Reading check (top of class)
• Confirm Day 3–4 (Ch. XXII–XLI) complete. If multiple students are behind, run a 2-minute catch-up huddle before proceeding; do not cancel the debate.
Hook
Each student lists what Amy sacrifices, then what Jo sacrifices. Compare on the board: who actually gave up more? Then: Jo "renounced her old ambition" at Beth's bedside while Beth was still alive (Ch. XL). But she also "never left her for an hour" (Ch. XL), and after Beth's death was "taught by love and sorrow," and wrote again (Ch. XLII). Was giving up the ambition itself the perseverance, or was coming back to the work?
Minute by minute
| Time | What happens | Your job |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:05 | Arrival. Evidence packets out. Prep deadline confirmed. | Forge Coach nods from beside the moderator. Text Coach reviews packets. |
| 0:05–0:15 | Hook: Q4 Ledger. Two columns on the board. | Weaver runs. Forge Coach keeps it moving. |
| 0:15–0:25 | Pre-debate. Student moderator checks timer and reads Q2 stakes. | Forge Coach sits beside the moderator with the whisper-card; prompts only if the moderator freezes. |
| 0:25–0:30 | Break | |
| 0:30–1:05 | Oxford Debate: Pre-vote → Openings → Rebuttals → Closings → Jury questions → Post-vote. 35 minutes. | Forge Coach stays beside the moderator, silent unless procedure breaks. Text Coach juries, votes and asks a jury question like a student, while also spot-checking evidence. Weaver watches room dynamics. |
| 1:05–1:20 | Forge Reflection: moderator tallies ballots and announces once: "X minds changed. That is the point." No public scoreboard. Each role then writes analytically. | Weaver reminds students to keep it in their Forge Journal; collects tally sheet + reflections for the Reveal. |
| 1:20–1:30 | The Reveal: Weaver reads one anonymized line aloud. | Weaver reads. No commentary. |
| 1:30–1:40 | "Hold the Tension" minute. | Weaver asks. No scoring. |
Students treat Jo's bedside renunciation as the whole answer. Re-read the Ch. XL/XLII contrast aloud: she renounces ambition while Beth is dying, then resumes writing after, perseverance doesn't mean never pausing, it's what she does with the pause.
Homework to check
Day 5 reading (Ch. XLII–XLVII, "What Remains") before next week.
Story Layer paragraph: "What did this unit cost you? What shifted?"
WEEKS 5–7 · 2/3