One of the many improvements in TaskMagic3 (compared with previous versions) is the fact that you can make exercises based on text on separate lines, such as poems, letters, songs, paragraphs etc., rather than just a continuous chunk of text.
The resources on this page are based on the poem Instantes, widely attributed to Jorge Luis Borges, but apparently not by him. The same approach can be used for any poem, short story, nursery rhyme, song etc. You can even add a sound file to the interactive exercises.
The resources below were created using the Mix and Gap component of TaskMagic3. Below you will find screenshots of TaskMagic3 interactive exercises interpsersed with example worksheets, which you can view, download, print etc.
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A TaskMagic3 Picture Match file (requires TaskMagic3 to open it) based on parts of the body vocab in French and pictures. The file (link below) provides access to all of the games and activities you can see in the screen shot (above):
A selection of pdf worksheets based on the same content, printed out from TaskMagic3:
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Some French resources you may find useful for question forming using "est-ce que". The examples all use modal verbs - so any infinitive can be added to make a complete question. But the same structure would also apply to questions in present and other tenses.
I read an interesting blog post about the fact that language learners are used to answering questions but not so used to asking them. See: http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2011/01/when-answering-is-only-half-the-potential-of-a-question.html
Some matching resources based on 75 pairs of sort-of synonyms in French.
These are often the sorts of things used in GCSE French reading and listening papers to catch students out.
Here is the TaskMagic3 Text Match file shown in the image above (this requires you to have TaskMagic3):
And some TaskMagic pdf worksheets:
These resources are based on a short story about asking someone to go out / arranging to go out, with lots of high frequency expressions.
The text practises the following:
(no) quiero / quieres / quiere + inf (+?s)
(no) me / te / le gusta + inf (+?s)
porque
así que
voy / va / van
está + feeling
es + description
conmigo / contigo / con él / ella
a few freetime activities
+ lots of other high frequency expressions
And here are the pdf worksheets:
Here is the Mix&Gap file (mtx3 -- requires TaskMagic3):
And here are the 11 worksheets:
]]>Is your school still using Windows PCs / laptops connected to interactive whiteboards or projectors?
If so, have you thought about using TaskMagic to create interactive activities like those below to use with the whole class or teams?
The resources below are all based on basic Spanish TL phrases for students to use in the classroom.
The pdf worksheets below can be printed out or (some of them can be) used in full-screen mode with your projector or IWB.
]]>The resources below are all based on basic French TL phrases for students to use in the classroom.
The pdf worksheets below can be printed out or (some of them can be) used in full-screen mode with your projector or IWB.
]]>(Following on from this blog post)
Or, to look at it a different way...
A TaskMagic3 10 user licence is like MFL-focused interactive whiteboard software for a dept of up to 10 teachers (or share it outside the dept, why not?) for less than £25 per teacher.
AND that's a ONE-OFF payment. NOT a subscription.
AND it prints off a whole load of worksheets too.
(And because it isn't web-based, you don't need to rely on an internet connection :)
Links:
Making match-up games and activites for PCs and IWB
Making literacy and text-reconstruction resources based on texts
Making verb conjugation games for PC / IWB (and worksheets too)
Making picture and text match-up games for your IWB
Ready-made TaskMagic3 resources (for those who have TM3)
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]]>The average UK secondary school has about 900 pupils.
That means that the average cost per pupil of buying a school licence for TaskMagic3 is about 45p.
And that's for a perpetual licence. So if you use TaskMagic for, say, the next 4 years, it works out at just over 11p per pupil per year.
And that includes the ability to create a wide variety of engaging interactive resources for use with interactive whiteboards or projectors, or with suites of PCs or school laptops, as well as a wide range of worksheets....
...for all ages: KS2, KS3, KS4, 16+
...and for many languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, Indonesian, English (etc. most roman script languages)
...as well as for non-language subjects, especially (but not only) for SEN and literacy work.
11p per pupil per year - based on average sized school buying a site licence and using it for 4 years.
And an upgrade to TaskMagic3 costs half the non-upgrade price.
So OK, TaskMagic only works on Windows computers, not Macs. Not on ipads*. But you can't argue with those prices, can you?
[*By the way, a licence to use TaskMagic3 on every computer in the school costs roughly the same as one (1) ipad.]
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Short GCSE practice text taken from this fab pdf on rewardinglearning with absolutely loads of GCSE French vocab and grammar practice:
http://www.rewardinglearning.org.uk/common/includes/microsite_doc_link.aspx?docid=10386-2
Here are the pdfs, in no particular order:
Text Match is probably the most used component of TaskMagic and can be used in so many different ways...
This series of blog posts - "Text Match exercises - what to match?" - explores some ideas for the kinds of things that teachers can use as the basis for their text matching exercises. Each blog post contains screenshots of - and links to - interactive exercises as well as worksheets which can be viewed online, downloaded, printed etc. (SCROLL DOWN FOR THE WORKSHEETS)
The key thing to remember when making matching activities based on matching sentence halves is that the matches have to be exclusive - i.e. you must make sure that there is only one sentence end that could possibly go with each sentence starter. It's no good making a resource based on the following data:
Je fais partie d'un club >> de foot
Je fais partie d'un club >> de tennis
Je fais partie d'un club >> de rugby
etc...
...because any of the end can match perfectly well with any of the starters.
Instead, you need to do this sort of thing:
Je fais partie d'un club de >> foot
Je fais partie d'un club >> de tennis
Je fais partie d'un >> club de rugby
etc.
...so that each match is exclusive.
The resources in this blog post are based on 16 sentences on the above topic in French.
We've recently updated the TaskMagic website to give it a new fresher appearance.
Each of the 8 activity group pages has its own image gallery allowing you to view screenshots of all of the TaskMagic3 screens.
One big change is to the way ready-made exercises are accessed: we've now added them to dropbox. This means that it's much simpler for us to add, remove and edit ready-made content. It also means that users can copy or download individual files or entire folders. N.B. You don't need a dropbox account to access these files, but if you haven't already got a dropbox account, we'd highly recommend that you get one. (If you haven't got a dropbox account, click here to sign up to dropbox for free.)
We hope you like the changes.
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Below you will find 11 pdf files based on a simple story in Spanish using lots of high frequency words, such as: puedo, no puedo, ¿puedo?, no puedes, tienes que, necesito, necesitas, necesitaba, quiero, quieres...
The pdfs were printed from TaskMagic3 using doPDF.
You won't want to use all of the pdfs, of course. (I've included them so you have a range to choose from.)
The TaskMagic3 file is here (mtx3):
Here are those 11 pdfs (in no particular order). Anybody can access these: