As someone who is pretty decent at go (6k OGS, for those who know what that means), I teach go in a pretty unorthodox way, which has so far produced much better results than the way I see other teach it.

The way I teach both the rules and basic strategy of go is to start with the smallest possible board 1x1 and work our way up.

on a 1x1 board, it's impossible to place any stones because it has no liberties. Great now the player knows about liberties.

Then we move to a 2x2 board, where it is possible to place a stone and capture the opponent's stone. Great now we know about captures and ko.

Then we move to 3x3, where we find ourselves able to create our first live shapes, and get to score the board. Now we know when the game ends and how to score it!

Then we move on to 5x5, where we play our first 'real' game, now knowing all the rules.