We appreciate this objection, for it makes a strong case for providing students regular and consistent feedback. Provide plenty of feedback. An instructor can supply much more personalized, in-class feedback with the workshop approach than in a traditional lecture classroom, and the instructor is positioned to continually assess how students are doing. We also encourage you to collect a regular sampling of tasks and homework exercises as another type of feedback. Stress good writing.
Many activities call for students to write interpretations and explain their findings.
We insist that students relate these to the context at hand. Implore students to read well. Students can do themselves a great service by taking their time and reading not only the individual questions carefully, but also the short blurbs between tasks, which summarize what they have done and point the way to what is to come. We enjoy teaching more with the workshop approach than with lecturing, principally because we get to know the students better and we love to see them actively engaged with the material. We genuinely enjoy talking with individual students and small groups of students on a regular basis, as we try to visit each group several times during a class period.