Confidence is most of it

My colleague and I are in my 6eme class trying to get 52 students to understand the concept of adverbs of frequency. We are trying to get them to use them in a sentence. There is a list of them on the board. (rarely, sometimes, never, always, often) What they can’t seem to grasp is that they need to include one of those six magical words in order for their sentences to be correct.

“I sometimes eat pounded yams,” my colleague says.

“I always ride my bicycle to school,” I say.

“I always walk to school,” Leon offers.

“John usually sleeps in class,” Rodrigue says. 

“Landry never does his homework,” Alexandre adds.

They seem to be getting the hang of it.

The next student I call on is Marcos, a shy boy who seems younger than most of my other students. 

He stands up proudly, arms straight, hands at his sides. 

“Marcos is a student!” he yells, so sure of his answer that I also want it to be right.