Spanish poem / conditional resources - Instantes

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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"Depardieu reçoit son passeport russe" - lots of resources

The resources in this post are based on a French text about Gérard Depardieu's decision to accept Putin's offer of Russian citizenship. There are lots of past tenses in the article, which is probably suitable for use with AS/A2. Here's the original article: http://www.sudouest.fr/2013/01/06/depardieu-dans-sa-nouvelle-patrie-926235-4778.php

There are 11 pdf files in all, all printed using dopdf - http://www.dopdf.com

The pdfs are based on a Mix and Gap file containing the text of the article, which is also included (mtx3). This file provides access to a wide variety of interactive exercises for use with PCs or with an interactive whiteboard. It requires TaskMagic3. If you haven't got TaskMagic3, you can download a 30-day trial from the TaskMagic website (doesn't require registration or anything - just download and install it).

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French AS/A2 resources: "Interdisez les bouteilles !"

The resources in this post are based on a French text about the environment suitable for AS/A2 - on a US town's decision to ban the sale of bottles of water smaller than 1 litre. Here's the original article: http://www.20minutes.fr/article/1072899/ville-americaine-interdit-petites-bouteilles-eau-plastique

Exploiting texts to maximum effect (UPDATED)

1. Type or paste in a text into the Mix and Gap editor screen

You can type or paste in any text of up to 500 words.

There are various sources of texts:
- The internet; news feeds; short articles etc.
- Your text book: this allows you to create resources based specifically on the book that your students are using in class.
- Past exam papers.
- Letters, songs, poems, etc.
- Your imagination :o)
- Students can type or paste in their own corrected written work, which can then be use to help them to learn their text, or shared with other students for extended text manipulation practice.

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Exploiting short dialogues / situational dialogues

In a previous post (see here), I discussed how it was possible to exploit a source text to generate a whole range of interactive exercises and worksheets based on the text itself, as well as on the lexical items within the text, and how this can be achieved in a matter of minutes using TaskMagic3.

This post will take a quick look at how short transactional or situational dialogues (or any short series of exchanges on any topic) can be exploited in a similar way, using the Dialogues component of TaskMagic3 as the starting point.

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