Be sure to review nomenclature and know how alkyl halides fit into the picture. The leaving group is typically a halide ion, or a protonated oxygen. Hydroxide is NOT a good leaving group, and given that H-OH is not a strong acid this is not surprising. Another complication is that Elimination is ofter a competing reaction. In an Elimination reaction, the LG and an adjacent hydrogen are both lost with the formation of a double bond.
Heat favors elimination.
E2 is not particularly sensitive to steric hindrance because the base is forming a bond to a hydrogen which is typically more exposed. The prefered geometry for E2 has the LG and the H that is removed in an Anti conformation. Think about how this reaction might work - it's an SN2 mechanism that takes a couple of steps. Grignard reagents are carbanions that are strong bases, and react with ketones and aldehydes as nucleophiles. Chapter 8 Chapter 8 concerns alcohols and ethers - know how to name these types of compounds.