This stage focuses on mastering fundamentals in phonics, spelling, grammar, mathematics, science, history, and literature, as well as procedural fluency and conceptual understanding of math and the context and concepts of science.

This stage focuses on building on the fundamentals by teaching children to think and analyze critically and to argue well by arranging facts into organized arguments. Students begin this process by following the argumentation and logic of the different subjects. For example, science uses this by developing and testing hypotheses, and math develops a student's ability to logically orient numbers through more abstract concepts.