I think it's important to have an arsenal of various types of activities and assignments to allow for broader understanding and retention of information. Doing the same types of activities over and over can affect a student's interest in the content and create boredom. I used to hate it when a student comes into the classroom and says, "what are we doing today?". I used to want to respond with "look at your syllabus" but I've realized that if they have to ask what we're doing, then I'm doing something right. They may know what we're going to talk about from the syllabus, but they shouldn't know all of my moves before I make them. It keeps it fun and interesting.
