Why is it called a scrum? State verbs and the present simple vs continuous
About this lesson
This lesson plan teaches state verbs and the present simple vs continuous to B1 learners of English for IT, through a Scrum team's week.
- Grammar
- Routines in the present simple (The sprint lasts two weeks.), work in progress in the continuous (Right now the tests are running.), and state verbs like need that stay simple.
- Topic
- Sprints and standups on the mobile team of Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup, with words such as backlog, user story, timebox and retrospective.
- Activities
- The rugby story behind Scrum, the team's sprint page, a welcome call, self-checking drills, a chat and a wheel, then a message to a new teammate and a voice update.
What's inside
Chapter 1Warm-up: How Does Your Team Work?
Chapter 2The Story: From Rugby to Software
Chapter 3At Work: The Mobile Team's Sprint Page
Chapter 4Listen: Welcome to the Mobile Team
Chapter 5Grammar: Usually or Right Now?
Chapter 6Speak Up: Routines and This Week
Chapter 7Homework: Your Team, Your Week
- Read your phrase bankReal-life documentUnlock
- Fill in the table: a typical week and this weekFill in the tableUnlock
- Unscramble the Scrum wordsAnagramUnlock
- Write a welcome message for a new teammateWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
- Record a voice update: a typical week and this weekSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock
Agile and Scrum vocabulary
12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.
+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words
- a sprint goal
- the backlog
- a user story
- a retrospective
- a timebox
- prioritize
- estimate
- demo
- pick up a ticket
Grammar: present simple vs continuous and state verbs
A software team uses two presents side by side: one for how it always works, one for what it's doing at the moment. Moving between a sprint page and a standup, learners match each tense to its time words and keep state verbs simple, even right now: I need access, never I'm needing access.
Present simple or present continuous?
The present simple for how your team usually works; the present continuous for what is happening now or this sprint.
Two present tenses, two jobs
The present simple gives routines, facts and timetables: We review pull requests after lunch. The sprint lasts two weeks. The present continuous, am, is or are + -ing, gives actions in progress and temporary work: This week Jordan is testing the payouts screen.
Two present tenses
| Tense | Form | Use it for | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present simple | I / you / we / they test; he / she / it tests; don't / doesn't test; Do / Does… test? | routines, habits, facts, timetables | We review pull requests after lunch. |
| Present continuous | am / is / are + verb-ing: I'm testing; isn't / aren't testing; Are you testing…? | actions now; temporary work this week or this sprint | This sprint I'm working on the login page. |
From the lesson
- The sprint lasts two weeks.a fact about how the team works
- Beatriz prioritizes the backlog every week.a routine
- In a scrum, players from both teams push together.a fact
- Right now Iryna's building the payouts screen.an action in progress
- This week Jordan is testing the payouts screen.temporary work
Time words point to the tense
Usually, always, every sprint and on Mondays go with the present simple; right now, at the moment, this week and currently go with the continuous. And a task under way today takes -ing: Today I'm working on the login bug.
| With the present simple | With the present continuous |
|---|---|
| usually, always, often, never | right now, now, at the moment |
| every day, every sprint, on Mondays | this week, this sprint, currently |
| every other Monday, once a week | today (work in progress), Look! |
State verbs stay simple
Verbs for states rather than actions rarely take -ing, even when the state is true at this moment: need, want, know, understand, mean, depend, belong, like. So a blocker sounds like I need access to the repo, and a reply like Sorry, I don't know who owns this ticket.
- need, want, know, understand, mean, depend, belong, like
- I need access to the repo. (not I'm needing)
- Sorry, I don't know who owns this ticket.
- The release date depends on the test results.
Both tenses at the standup
A standup update mixes the two: the continuous for your own work in progress (I'm fixing…, We're testing…), the simple for the team's fixed habits (We plan every other Monday.), and often a state verb for the blocker: The screen needs real payout data.
At the standup
Talk about your work in progress with the present continuous: I'm fixing…, We're testing… Talk about how your team works with the present simple: We plan every other Monday. The standup lasts 15 minutes.
Spelling
- -s: test → tests, fix → fixes, reply → replies
- -ing: test → testing, write → writing, take → taking
- -ing: run → running, set → setting, plan → planning
Typical mistakes
I'm needing access to the repo.
I need access to the repo.
need is a state verb
Today I work on the login bug.
Today I'm working on the login bug.
work in progress today
Usually I'm doing the reviews.
I usually do the reviews.
a routine
This week she works from home.
This week she's working from home.
a temporary change
More lessons on this grammar: Present simple vs present continuous lessons and exercises · Present simple lessons and exercises · Present continuous lessons and exercises
Try the state verbs exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 11 auto-checked exercises
- 3 games
- 2 teacher-checked tasks
- 2 real-life documents
- 1 article
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 set of word cards
- 1 audio clip
- 1 picture
- 1 transcript
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- describe your team's routines with the present simple: We plan every other Monday. The standup lasts fifteen minutes.
- say what's happening now or this sprint with the present continuous: This sprint I'm working on the login page.
- use state verbs in the simple form, even about this moment: I need access to the repo, not I'm needing access
- welcome a new teammate with how the team works and what everyone is doing this week: Need a task? Pick up the top ticket in the backlog.
Lesson 4 opens The daily standup, unit 2 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, which trains learners to give a clear update, flag a blocker and ask for help. It sets lesson 1's present simple beside the present continuous, a pair first contrasted in English A1.2 lesson 25, and adds state verbs, the usual trap in a blocker. Lessons 5 and 6 bring just, already and yet, then have to. A sprint mixes fixed routines with changing work, so both tenses come up daily.
Open boxes about the learners' teams come first, then twelve words with pictures and audio, from a scrum to pick up a ticket, and a picture quiz. The story shows how a 1986 article compared product teams to rugby players, and how Scrum got its name. Students check the mobile team's sprint page as true or false and sort its sentences into usual work and this sprint. In an AI-voiced call, the product owner welcomes a developer joining for one sprint. Four self-checking drills follow the scheme, the last a standup update with gaps; a chat with a friend about the new job and a wheel of questions come next.
Homework starts with a phrase bank; a table of a typical week beside this week and an anagram of Scrum words then check themselves. Students write a welcome message for a new teammate and record a voice update on a typical week and this week, both for the teacher to review.
- Grammar:
- present simple vs present continuous · state verbs
- Topic:
- Scrum · sprints · how a team works
Teaching tips
- Draw two columns before the sprint page, every sprint and this sprint, and let learners fill them with facts about their own team; the column sort after the reading checks the same split.
- Run a short standup in class: each learner gives one routine, one task in progress and one need, and the group catches any I'm needing. In-company groups can use their real tickets.
- Ask about rugby before the story: has anyone seen a scrum, and why would a software team borrow the word? The answers prepare the article's contrast between a relay race and a rugby team.
- One-to-one, trade weekly voice updates: the learner records a typical week and this week, you answer in kind, and together you mark each verb as a routine or work in progress.
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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team
24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course
Unit 1 Hello, team
roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms
Unit 2 The daily standup
updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to
Lesson 4 · you're hereWhy is it called a scrum?Present simple vs continuous and state verbs
Lesson 5Done, not done yetPast simple, present perfect and going to for updates
Lesson 6Help, I'm blocked!Have to, need to, don't have to and can't
Unit 3 Bugs and tickets
clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers
Unit 4 Code review
kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional
Unit 5 How it works
explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses
Unit 6 Remote and async
chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous
Unit 7 Users and clients
user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons
Unit 8 Your next job
resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional
