When I'm preparing my materials, there are two things that I'm very cautious about: relevance of the content and sequencing. If it's a skills lesson, especially if they're reading or listening lessons, students must feel they're well equipped to handle the tasks. Their affective filters tend to escalate when they sense they not able to cope with what is expected from them. In this case, scaffolding and predictability are both essential.
Depending on the student, if s/he senses s/he can't do the first exercise, they may simply shy away from doing anything else.
Hi Pedro, a great post. I think you've hit the nail on the head - when teaching skills, sequencing is crucial. I saw a colleague Erika Osvath do an interesting activity in a workshop recently. I'll mention it in tomorrow's live session!
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