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Conceptual architecture·Low cognitive demand·10–20 minutes

Primer

Establish the minimum vocabulary and mental map students need before complexity is introduced.

Knowledge
Factual · Conceptual · Systems
Sequence
Orientation · Prerequisite Activation
Interaction
Low

A primer builds a compact shared model of a field. It names the essential parts, shows how they relate, and gives students enough orientation to notice what later explanations are doing.

01How the architecture unfolds

  1. State the central question the field helps answer.
  2. Introduce five to seven indispensable terms.
  3. Arrange the terms into one visible model.
  4. Test the model with a simple example and a non-example.
  5. Ask students to reconstruct the model from memory.

02The work on each side

Teacher moves

  • Remove interesting but nonessential detail
  • Model relationships between terms
  • Check whether words and concepts are being confused

Student moves

  • Name
  • Classify
  • Connect
  • Reconstruct

03What would count as learning?

  • Students can redraw the organising model
  • Students use core terms accurately in a new sentence

04Across the curriculum

History

Weimar Germany

Map democracy, dictatorship, legitimacy, extremism, and coalition government before chronology.

Science

Natural selection

Distinguish variation, inheritance, selection pressure, survival, and reproduction before modelling change.