The TaskMagic Blog

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.

Start by typing or pasting your text into the Mix and Gap edit screen:

If you create a Gap-fill exercise (by clicking the button on the above screen and selecting your gaps) and a Find it! exercise (by selecting parts from the text and typing in your prompts), you will end up with the following menu screen for your poem:

Below are screenshots of the available exercises, together with worksheets for you to view, download, print etc.

Tile 3x3

Students drag the tiles of text into the correct position. This exercise is not always appropriate for songs and poems, as they are set out on separate lines, but with this poem it works because the text reads well as a continuous text.

There is also a worksheet, based on the 8 tiles of text, which can be used by numbering the blocks, or by cutting them out and reordering them.

Tile 4x4

Students drag the tiles of text into the correct position. This exercise is not always appropriate for songs and poems, as they are set out on separate lines, but with this poem it works because the text reads well as a continuous text.

There is also a worksheet, based on the 15 tiles of text, which can be used by numbering the blocks, or by cutting them out and reordering them.

Tile 5x5

Students drag the tiles of text into the correct position. This exercise is not always appropriate for songs and poems, as they are set out on separate lines, but with this poem it works because the text reads well as a continuous text.

There is also a worksheet, based on the 24 tiles of text, which can be used by numbering the blocks, or by cutting them out and reordering them.

1 in 3

1 in 3 requires the student to rebuild the text by choosing each time from the 3 alternatives.

A 1 in 3 worksheet is also available:

Gap-fill

The student drags or types the words into the gap. You can also set the exercise up so that gapped words are not displayed.

See also the Gap-fill worksheet:

Next Letter 1

The student types in every letter, starting at the beginning.

Next Letter 2

This time with just the vowels removed. You can use this with an IWB or projector as a prompt for a whole class exercise.

Tower Block

Students select each time from 4 possibilities. Each correct answer adds a storey to the tower.

Space

The student has to click to separate the words, which are all run together as one block of letters.

See the Space worksheet below:

Next Word

The student rebuilds the original text, selecting each time from 10 possible words.

Word Guess

A prediction activity. The student predicts or guesses the words in the text. You can fill in half the text (50/50), buy letters, and view the whole text for a timed period.

Anagrams

Every word of 3 or more letters has been removed from the text. Click on a word to show its letters jumbled up as an anagram. Click these letters in the correct order to insert the word.

See also the Anagrams worksheet:

Click and fill

Click anywhere in the text to type in the missing letters. You can fill in half the text (50/50), buy letters, etc.

Invaders 2

Click on the missing letters in the correct order to stop the block from falling.

Snake

Find the missing letters hidden in snake form in the grid.

Find it!

Students select the bits of the text which match with your prompt.

See also the Find it! worksheet below:

You can easily make an extra series of exercises based on vocab in your poem or song. With a couple of clicks you can create a Text Match file based on the prompts and selected text used in the Find it! exercise.

If you want to make any minor changes to the items, you can do this using the Text Match edit screen. You end up with all of the interactive exercises on the Text Match menu screen below:

See the Text Match page on the TaskMagic website for details of the interactive exercises shown on the menu screen above and the worksheets available in the Text Match component of TaskMagic3 (including notes on the level of difficulty of the various activities, suggestions for use in class etc).

And see the worksheets below based on the above Text Match file (based on the poem).           

Matching (based on the conditionals in the poem)

Multi-Match (based on the conditionals in the poem)

Write the Spanish (based on the conditionals in the poem)

Dominoes (based on the conditionals in the poem)

See the Mix and Gap page on the TaskMagic3 website for more details of all of the interactive exercises available.

If you already have TaskMagic3 on your computer, click below to open the TaskMagic3 files shown above:

Mix and Gap file with poem

Text Match file based on Find it!

Modified Text Match file used for the above match worksheets

Right-click any of the above links for options to save the file to your computer so that you can then open it with TaskMagic Create and edit the contents.

If you don't already have TaskMagic3, you can download a 30-day trial from http://www.mdlsoft.co.uk/trialdownloads.htm

Visit the TaskMagic website for lots more information about TaskMagic: http://www.mdlsoft.co.uk

Check out the 'Ready-made exercises' section of the website for hundreds of ready-made TaskMagic3 files: http://www.mdlsoft.co.uk/readymade.htm

SEE THESE EXTENSIVE VIDEO TUTORIALS on all aspects of creating your own resources in Mix and Gap to exploit all sorts of texts.

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