Grammar Fix: I do my homework now: the '-ing' that means 'right now'

Objective & content

students correctly choose am/is/are + verb-ing for actions happening right now, and keep the plain present for habits and routines, including in questions (question word + am/is/are + -ing). The printable is the unit's class pack: one A4 pupil sheet (recognition items, then fill-in and word-order drills) printed once per pupil, and one teacher sheet with the answer key and the notes below.

Pedagogical guide

none of our learners' first languages mark this exact split the way English does. German and Austrian German have no grammaticalized progressive at all — there is no verb form to reach for instead, only adverbs like "gerade." Polish has no distinct progressive tense either; its present imperfective already covers ongoing action within the same form. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch all have some kind of progressive periphrasis (etre en train de, estoy haciendo, sto facendo, estou fazendo, aan het... zijn), but in every one of those languages the plain present stays fully grammatical and commonly used for the same "right now" meaning, so the habit of reaching for the plain form survives even where a continuous form exists. English is the outlier: it requires the -ing form the moment "this exact moment" is meant, and does not let the plain form double up. Expect "I do my homework now" from any class in our markets, just at varying strength. Use it after the class has watched the unit, or on its own as a targeted repair when the mistake shows up in written work.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Write the target sentence on the board and ask what is wrong with it. Collect the class's answers.
2. (10 min) Pupils work through the pupil sheet alone: recognition items first, then the drills.
3. (5 min) Check with the teacher sheet. Read the explanation of each recognition item aloud.
4. (2 min) Exit line: each pupil writes one correct sentence with the structure on a slip of paper.

Adaptations

• [S] Do the recognition items together as a class before pupils try the drills alone.
• [A] ask students to mime an action while a partner describes it ("You're jumping!"), then swap and each say one thing they do every day using the plain form, so the class hears the right-now/habit contrast produced live, not just recognised.

Materials & prerequisites

One pupil sheet per pupil, one teacher sheet. No audio needed; the Grammar Fix unit video is an optional lead-in. Watch for: dropping am/is/are + -ing for right-now actions and using the plain present instead (most of this sheet's recognition items test this directly); the opposite overcorrection once the rule lands — applying -ing to a habitual, everyday action instead of keeping it plain ("I'm playing football every Saturday" instead of "I play football every Saturday") — a third of this sheet's items are built to catch that swing, so don't be surprised if a student who "gets the rule" still fails these; carrying the same plain-form mistake into questions (question word + am/is/are + -ing follows the same rule, it is not a separate lesson).

Curriculum alignment

Grammar tags: present-continuous. Filed at A1+ (the level where the mistake starts to appear); the example sentences stay inside that band.

Assessment & extensions

The exit line is the check. Extend with the Grammar Fix unit itself, or with the grammar sheet on the same structure when one exists.