Introduce the simple tense, which takes the simplest form (she walks, she walked and she will walk). Define the simple past as a verb that describes a finished action that occurred in the past, the present as a verb that refers to a habitual action and the future to describe an event in the future. Write the definition along with examples on the board or type them onto a slide show.
Draw two perpendicular lines on the board. Label the vertical line "now," the stretch of horizontal line to the left "the past" and the stretch of horizontal line after "the future." Draw two dots in "the past" and label the first dot "It had started to rain" and the second dot "before she walked." Explain that the first dot signifies event number one and the second event number two. The perfect tenses describe one event in relation to another. "It had started to rain before she walked" describes two events that both occurred in the past. This is called the past perfect.
Create a chart with two dots for the present perfect (locate the second dot on "now") and for the future perfect (locate both dots in the future.) Label present perfect chart "It has started to rain" and the future perfect chart "It will have started to rain by the time she walks."
Explain that the simple tenses take the progressive form when describing an event happening right now ("it is raining"), an event that occurred during another event ("it rained while she was walking") or an event that will occur during another event in the future ("she will be walking when it rains").
Add arrows to the perfect charts, beginning from the first event and reaching to the second. Explain that the progressive tenses describe ongoing events that began before a second event and possibly continue past it. Write the example "It had been raining for an hour by the she walked" for the past perfect progressive, "It has been raining for an hour now" for the present perfect progressive" and "It will have been raining for an hour by the time she walks."
Blank out all verb tenses of a paragraph or article that incorporates all verb tenses and instruct students to fill them in.
Assign a paragraph or journal entry on a topic that incorporates all the tenses. Ask students to describe what they had expected to happen at a given event, what actually happened, what they were thinking while it happened, what they would have done differently and how they expect it will happen in the future.
Divide students into discussion groups with a topic list where they practice the different verb tenses. Suitable topics include what they did yesterday, what they are doing now and what they will do or be doing in the future.