A bit of talcum / Is always walcum. – Ogden Nash, “Reflection on Babies”

Teacher to teacher:

Thank goodness for poets like Ogden Nash, who break the laws of grammar and thus create memorable writing.

In general, there are plenty of excellent grammar-focused textbooks. Pick one, right?

In my opinion, teachers focus too much on grammatical correctness, and too little on communicating ideas. Your students, likewise, expect to do lots of grammar exercises. Given this expectation, make your grammar exercises as communicative as possible. Embed target vocabulary into these exercises. Students benefit from repeated exposure to words in context.

For beginning students,  I teach some fundamentals, like the verbs BE, HAVE, DO and GO in the Present Simple Affirmative, Negative and Question. Then, I do regular short daily practices that review verb conjugation. Negatives, with contractions, are vitally important in English, and often a heavy lift for your learners. The equivalency of subject pronouns and nouns in subjects is often misunderstood, so they make great warmers for punctual students. I often use the names of my students as the subject of these sentences. As they get comfortable with daily practices, I move on and create funny often ridiculous sentences with my students as subjects.

Example: Lician, Maria E. and  Guixiang [ am / is / are/ ] astronauts and [ I / he / she / it / you / we / they ] [ want / wants ] powdered bananas for breakfast.

Unit 4 Grammar Fundamentals

English Grammar Words to Know

Be Verb Affirm Neg Q as table

Simple Present Negative DO NOT slide

Be Have Do Go Present Affirm Table

Have vs Be Regent Bird

S verb endings warmer Be Have Need Want