I Am Having Two Sister: Correcting Class 5 English
A Class 5 in Mysuru has 41 children whose first language is Kannada and five 45-minute English periods a week. The teacher has just finished the unit The Little Bird: nearly all the children can recite it and answer the textbook comprehension questions correctly. In a free writing task, Write five sentences about your family, 30 of 41 produced sentences such as I am having two sister, My father is go to office and I have 10 years; four children wrote only their names. The half-yearly paper carries 10 marks for guided writing of five sentences on a familiar topic. Before an inspection next month, the head teacher has told staff that notebooks must show correct English with no mistakes. The class has one dictionary and no supplementary reader.
1. Analyse the three recurring errors. Which would you correct now, which would you merely notice, and why?
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All three are developmental errors of the kind expected when a child builds English from a small repertoire plus first-language patterns; none is carelessness.
I am having two sister shows two things at once: over-use of the present continuous, probably because is/am plus -ing was the first verb pattern taught and recited, and a missing plural -s. My father is go to office is the same over-use taken further, with be plus base verb. I have 10 years is a direct transfer from ನನಗೆ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ, where Kannada uses a dative construction with no verb to be.
Priority for correction: the plural -s and have/has, because both are extremely high frequency and appear in almost every writing task, and age is a fixed chunk, I am ten years old, which can simply be taught as one item. The be plus base verb should be noticed and recast orally rather than red-penned everywhere.
Equally important is what not to correct: at this stage marking every slip in every sentence teaches children that writing is a trap, and four children who wrote only their names are already showing that. I would mark two target items per piece, add one positive comment about content, and keep a class tally of which error is most common so the next lesson can target it.
2. Design a 15-minute oral activity that teaches have/has and the age chunk communicatively, not by repetition.
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The aim is for children to need the pattern because they want to say something true, so the activity must have information they do not already share.
Start with real objects: the teacher holds a red pencil and says I have a red pencil, then asks a child, Do you have a red pencil? The child answers and passes the question on, so the pattern is being used to find something out, not to recite.
Then a four-item class survey: Do you have a sister? Do you have a brother? Do you have a bicycle? Do you have a pet? Children walk to three classmates, ask, and tally answers on a small grid. Model the reply in full at first: Yes, I have two sisters, or No, I do not have a sister. The teacher circulates and recasts, saying back the correct form without stopping the speaker: Ah, you have two sisters.
The age chunk is taught separately as a fixed phrase, How old are you? I am ten years old, in a quick circle, so it does not get mixed with have. Close by asking three children to report: Ravi has two sisters. The survey tallies then become the content of the next five-sentence writing task, so the grammar is doing real work and the writing has something to say.
3. How would you respond to the head teacher's instruction that notebooks must show no mistakes, without simply refusing?
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A flat refusal makes an enemy and changes nothing. The workable response is to accept the underlying concern - visible, improving written English - and propose a system that meets it while protecting children's willingness to write.
I would suggest two notebooks with two clear purposes. The drafting notebook is where children write freely; there the teacher marks only two target items plus one comment, and errors are treated as evidence for planning. The presentation notebook holds the corrected fair copy, produced after a taught editing step: write it, read it aloud to a partner, check two named things (plural -s, have/has), then rewrite. This gives the inspection exactly what it wants - neat, correct final work - while keeping the first attempt honest.
I would also bring data rather than opinion. If I can show that the number of children using have/has correctly rose from 11 to 24 over three weeks, or display before-and-after drafts, the argument becomes about outcomes. Public correction and red ink across every line should be avoided because four children are already writing nothing at all, and a child who writes nothing produces no correct English either. Finally, I would point to the 10-mark guided writing section, which rewards expression as well as accuracy, so over-correction directly costs marks.