Inside a Lesson: A Full Walkthrough
Every Primer lesson follows the same five-step path, shown as a stepper at the top of the screen: Lesson, Unplugged, Puzzle, Practice, and Exit Ticket. This article walks through each step, plus every accessibility and support feature built into the lesson screen itself.
On this page
The five steps of a lesson
A lesson opens on the reading passage itself, with a video panel alongside it. The stepper at the top (Lesson, Unplugged, Puzzle, Practice, Exit Ticket) tracks progress and lets a student jump back to an earlier step at any time. Each step is checked off with a small checkmark once it's been completed.
The settings icon: accessibility and view options
The gear icon in the top-right corner of the lesson card, not the account-level gear in the site's top navigation, opens a toolbar of reading accommodations:
- Aa toggles a dyslexia-friendly font.
- S / M / L / XL changes text size.
- Five color swatches apply a tinted reading overlay (a common accommodation for visual stress or tracking difficulty), and the circle with a line through it turns any overlay off.
- Full / Pages switches between a single continuous scroll and the paginated card view.
A student who benefits from a dyslexia-friendly typeface and larger text can turn both on together, as shown above. These settings apply only to that lesson session; they are separate from the account-level Accommodations tab covered in Touring Your Student's Dashboard.
Full view removes the page-by-page card and lets a student scroll continuously through the whole passage instead of clicking through pages one at a time.
Sound-out words
Certain words in the passage appear as a highlighted chip with a small link icon, like strap above. Clicking one has the app sound the word out for the student, breaking it into its component sounds rather than just reading it aloud whole. This is especially useful for the exact skill many lessons are teaching (in this example, reading words that start with consonant clusters like str, spl, and scr).
Listen to this lesson (text-to-speech)
The owl icon in the control bar below the passage is a play button labeled Listen to this lesson. Clicking it reads the current page aloud; while playing, the icon becomes a pause button and a 1x speed indicator appears next to it.
The lesson's video
Alongside the passage, a Watch Together panel embeds a YouTube video related to the lesson's topic. Underneath it, a feedback row asks How is this video? with two options: This one works! and Not for me.
It's worth being clear with students about what this does: clicking Not for me does not swap in a different video on the spot. It submits feedback ("Got it, we'll find better matches next time") that Primer uses to improve which videos it selects for that student going forward.
Unplugged: an offline activity
The Unplugged step is a short, screen-free activity, usually five to ten minutes, meant to get the student away from the device and practicing the skill with pencil and paper. It lists what's needed (in this example: pencil, paper, and crayons), gives numbered instructions, and ends with a Check My Work button once the student has done the activity.
Making a worksheet
Every Unplugged step has a Make a Worksheet option for students who want, or need, more practice than the built-in activity alone.
Clicking it generates a brand-new, personalized printable worksheet on the spot; a short progress indicator shows encouraging status messages while it's being built.
The finished worksheet opens in a new tab with Download PDF and Answer Key options.
Need Help?
The Need Help? button floats in the bottom-right corner of every step. Opening it gives a student two guided shortcuts, I don't understand a word (tap the word in the lesson) and This part is confusing (tap the sentence), plus a free-text box to type any other question. A small counter (for example, 0/10) tracks how many questions the student has asked.
Puzzle
The Puzzle step is an interactive activity built around the lesson's vocabulary; the specific puzzle type varies by lesson. In this example it's a crossword with a word bank and Across/Down clues, plus a Read button that reads each clue aloud.
Practice
Practice is a short set of graded questions (five, in this example) that mix formats: multiple choice, yes/no, fill-in-the-blank, and drag-to-match. Each question has a Check Answer button that gives immediate right/wrong feedback, plus an optional Show hint link for students who get stuck.
Exit Ticket
The Exit Ticket is the lesson's final check, unlocked once every Practice question has been answered. Unlike Practice, it does not grade each question as the student goes; it collects all answers and only shows results after the student clicks Submit Answers.
The results screen shows a score (for example, "You got 5 out of 6"), and a student can tap any missed question to see what to try next time. Completing the Exit Ticket marks the entire lesson as done.