Each student is different and learn in different phase. While you can certainly take the unit design into account, there are other approaches you can use to help prime student brains for learning.
Among the simplest of these strategies is encouraging curiosity — and students’ natural tendency to predict — by advertising the content in a similar manner that a marketing company might. This promotes advance interest, and the resulting questions raise the student curiosity, opening the brain’s attentive intake filter. In short, it preps their minds to get involved.
How might this work? Try advertising a coming unit by cutting up a related, compelling image, and then adding pieces daily to reconstruct that image as the “advertisement” gradually takes form.
Similarly, various clues — visual or otherwise — could be added every few days leading up to the new unit’s introduction.
These visualize the content and prime the mind to learn new content.
Even though curiosity gradually reduces in favor of caution, the need to find out if a prediction is right or wrong is part of the brain’s permanent wiring. The brain strengthens future predictions and corrects any incorrect prior knowledge leading to incorrect predictions through a prediction-reward system fueled by dopamine pleasure. In short, even if students gradually become less interested, it won’t reduce their need to know as the unit begins.
The brain is wired for high interest when clues prompt prediction, anticipating the pleasure of the dopamine reward response. There is no such intrinsic motivation for drills and memorization of rote facts and procedures. Isolated skill practice is contrary to the brain’s instinct to preserve its energy, because there is no expectation of pleasure from energy output.