Conduct warm-up exercises that teach choral pronunciation of consonants and vowels. The way a choral singer must emphasize the vowel "a" is very different from a country singer or pop singer, and new choral singers must learn the distinction through such exercises.
In a basic three-note sustained chord, have the group sing a slow "a, e, i, o, u." Soon, they will learn that the sequence should sound like "eh ee ah oh ooh." Stress that the vowels should not be shallow and sung from a constricted throat, but should come from their diaphragm.
Also ask the singers to make a sentence using choral pronunciation. For example, the phrase, "I went to the store to get some coffee" would be chorally pronounced as "Ah went too the stohr too get sohm cohfeh."
Make the class treat each note as a sixteenth note (and not to sustain anything) to ensure they understand entrances, tempo and balance. Not only is this method a fresh way to sing music, but the director can hear which sections are not grasping various transitions and musical passages.
Also instruct each section to listen to the others. When first learning the sheet music, it is typical for each group to focus on only their section. However, as the altos become comfortable with their part, they need to learn to take cues from the baritones and sopranos. Instruct a section to sing as softly as possible to juxtapose how their group fits in with the rest of the group.
Many people are familiar with this funny-sounding word, solfege, from the movie "The Sound of Music." Indeed, do re mi fa sol la ti and do are all representative of notes in a scale. Author and musician Marta Arkossy Ghezzo explains in her book "Solfege, Ear Training, Rhythm, Dictation and Music Theory" that solfege is used to train the ear to recognize notes and musical keys. Use solfege to assist with sight-reading and reading music.
Have your students master not only the note sequence for all scales, but also the hand gestures that correspond with each note. Do, for example, is a closed fist.
As they understand scales, work on arpeggios, sharps, flats, seconds and thirds. For example, seconds are sung as, "do mi so, re fa la, mi sol ti..." Then, introduce music and ask them to sing it using solfege.