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1/ A short thread on sequencing, schema, retrieval practice, and how we plan on teaching the global atmospheric circulatory model in our Year 8 curriculum. #geographyteacher
2/ I think the global atmospheric circulatory model is a threshold concept that meets all six criteria (if this is new to you, check out what @ensermark has to say here: bit.ly/2WHs0eo) so it’s worth teaching, and worth teaching well.
3/ Unbundling the model shows that there are some parts we need to know before looking that whole. We’ve taught low pressure before, in Y7 when we looked at precipitation so we can recap at that alongside introducing high pressure.
4/ With some of the knowledge foreshadowed, we teach the concept around the middle of the scheme of work, having looked at the distribution and formation of tropical storms; somewhere it *hopefully* fits the narrative.
5/ Because there’s so a lot of specific knowledge in the way of named cells, airflow directions, and different pressures, we start the following three lessons with retrieval practice focussed solely on this.
6/ Two lessons after teaching it for the first time, we apply it to explain the monsoon-driven flooding in Bangladesh. The intention is to provide an opportunity to review the entire model, help make it stick, and be more flexible.
7/ Six lessons after teaching it we have a low-stakes multiple-choice assessment to check students understanding; with the intention being to use up to half of the next lesson to correct any misunderstandings we find.
8/ All of this creates a sequenced plan that looks like this: 
9/ The global atmospheric circulatory model should nestle neatly into our overall curriculum, where extreme weather allows us to revisit and link to climate change (two topics ago), and climate refugees allow us to contrast with migration in the EU (the last topic).
10/ As well as setting us up for teaching about Tropical Rainforests (the next topic) where we can, again, revisit the global atmospheric circulatory system to explain why Rainforests (Hot Deserts, Temperate Grasslands, Arctic Tundra, and the rest) are found where they are.
11/ Taken account of the revisiting prior topics, it’s sequenced more like this:
12/ If it’s any help, it would look like this in a non-domain specific sort of a way:
