Once we create a clear context for the lesson information, we’re ready to share it fully with learners and elaborate our explanations with multiple forms of examples. Our goal in this stage is to answer: “What are the specific concepts students need to understand so they can begin applying them?” It is important at this stage to provide a broad range of perspectives, both from expert sources as well as community conversation.

Our next goal is to transition learners from a basic understanding of lesson concepts to a sense of personal relevance. This stage is about helping students find motivation for internalizing and applying information in a way that will lead to actual mastery. In this stage, we want to help students explore both deeper and broader implications of lesson concepts, answering: “Why does this information matter to me personally?”

At this point in the lesson, we want learners to take personal ownership of lesson concepts and to begin applying the information in ways that are relevant to them. This stage is all about the specific, contextual application that is the beginning of concept mastery. With agency, then, we move from questions of “Why” and “What” to “How.”

In the final stage of our model, we want learners to demonstrate an applied synthesis of what they have studied. Our goal is to give students a place to show, through project work or summative assessment, what they have learned. Where possible, we also want to include discussion from the larger learning community as part of this stage.