123. Unit Dreaming: A Family-Designed Unit (ELA, Music, PE) with Elizabeth and Nancy Jorgensen

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Nancy and Elizabeth Jorgensen are a mother and daughter duo, both teachers and writers. They even worked in the same building for a few years!  In this episode, we apply a step-by-step unit planning protocol to dream up a new unit! 

Unit Planning Step 1: Context/Spark

Nancy and Elizabeth co-wrote a book about their family member, Gwen Jorgensen, who is an Olympic athlete and the winningest woman in the history of the triathlon.  


Unit Planning Step 2: Pursuits (from Dr. Muhammad’s HILL Model) 

Identity: How will our unit help students to learn something about themselves and/or about others?

What does it look like to be your best! Tár is a movie about the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Criticality: How will our unit engage students’ thinking about power and equity and the disruption of oppression? 

Not many middle-grade books and stories about female athletes out there. Title IX. Structures of access. Representation across intersectional identities. 

Joy*: How will my unit enable, amplify, and spread joy? [Joy is: beauty, aesthetics, truth, ease, wonder, wellness, solutions to the problems of the world, personal fulfillment, art, music .]

Stories of joy and success and working through or bouncing back from the ache of not achieving success the first time. Student-curated resources (what brings them joy!) 

Unit Planning Step 3: Driving Question 

What environmental indicators enable us to be our best? 
Supporting Question: Who and what do I need? 


Unit Planning Step 4: Summative Project (Publishing Opportunity and Possible Formats)  

Students write letters to be published in a literary journal OR perform a live artistic/musical piece! Students can discuss what necessary components should be included in selections. 

Letter Examples: 

• Write a letter to self. The teacher can mail out the letter students wrote 4 years later.  
• Write an advocacy letter. Suggest a policy change.

Unit Planning Step 5: Lesson-Level Texts Ideas

Rich Roll’s podcast and YouTube series 

Alexi Pappas’s book Bravey 

Student-curated resources (e.g., newsletters, music scores) 


Stay Connected

You can find Elizabeth on www.lizjorgensen.weebly.com or email her at elizabeth.jorgensen@gmail.com. You can find Nancy on www.nancyjorgensen.weebly.com or email her at nancy.l.jorgensen@gmail.com. They are both on Twitter @LyzaJo and @NancyJorgensen

More Links: 

• Here is the book on Amazon: Gwen Jorgensen: USA's First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete
• Here is a link to purchased signed copies: https://www.booksco.com/signed-copy-gwen-jorgensen
• Our family story: Go: Gwen, Go: A Family's Journey to Olympic Gold
• Elizabeth’s teaching book: Hacking Student Learning Habits
• Nancy’s choral education book: Things They Never Taught You in Choral Methods

To help you implement a unit like this, Nancy and Elizabeth are sharing their educator guide with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 123 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 

• “Everyone has a role, even if those roles look vastly different…and none of those roles is more important than the others, really. The people out on stage could not live without people running the lights and the sound.”  
• “We have a list at our school of all the parents who don’t want their students’ likeness or name out of the school walls, and so I start there. And if I do see a student whose parent has said no, I reach out to them, and I say ‘Here’s what we’re doing. I just want to make sure that you don’t want your student to participate.’ And when I do that, every single time, the parent says, ‘Yes! We want our student to participate!’” 
• “Having conversations with the students about why. ‘Why is it cool to share our words with the world? Why will this publication or presentation or performance make a difference?’” ​

If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain what to do when political discussions bring unexpected things: