Great point. Whenever possible, I try to use a teaching technique called “interleaving,” which mixes skills together rather than just moving from point A to point B to point C. Here’s an explanation from Scientific American:

Enter “interleaving,” a largely unheard-of technique that is capturing the attention of cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists. Whereas blocking involves practicing one skill at a time before the next (for example, “skill A” before “skill B” and so on, forming the pattern “AAABBBCCC”), in interleaving one mixes, or interleaves, practice on several related skills together (forming for example the pattern “ABCABCABC”). For instance, a pianist alternates practice between scales, chords, and arpeggios, while a tennis player alternates practice between forehands, backhands, and volleys.

So this is why I had everyone take notes on something they’d never noticed before — which is something we’ll explore more next week.