representations and concepts

OK, I am finding that most of the time with my non-honors students I am putting too much cognitive load on them most of the time. For example, they are just becoming familiar with a concept (like conservation) and I start slamming them with a representation (like an impulse-momentum bar chart.) Too much at once and they panic, riot, or shut down.

So attached is my attempt to teach a new representation using a familiar concept. I would like students to be comfortable with the mechanics of the work-energy bar chart before we start using it to reason about new concepts.