Foster's pedagogy was entirely unorthodox. He eschewed the memorization of paradigms—to the point of forbidding students from memorizing lists of grammatical forms and vocabulary; rather, his method consisted of incrementally mastering the structure and vocabulary of the language by breaking down grammar into tiny, discrete concepts that could be immediately grasped and recognized by most students with little additional explanation. Examples included how to say "and" in Latin, or the second-person plural perfect form of a certain class of verbs and its meaning. Then, using chrestomathies of diverse Latin texts compiled by himself, Foster invited students to search for and identify the grammatical form under consideration. In this way, students were exposed, from day one, to genuine Latin literature rather than dry paradigms and tedious, rudimentary constructions. Finally, each lesson was reinforced through protracted homework assignments that often require many hours to complete.