The TaskMagic Blog

One of the many improvements in TaskMagic3 is the removal of the 16 item limit for matching exercises. TaskMagic files can now have hundreds (in fact up to 10,000) items in one file. This means you can now import entire vocab lists into one Text Match file (see this post for more details), but you can also input lists of more than 16 items manually.

The same principle

applies to Text Match, Picture Match, Sound Match and Pic-Sound.

See the example below of the Text Match edit screen.

To add more items, simply click on the + button (or use the tab key).

The thing to be aware of when making exercises based on longer lists is that for many of the exercises available, not all of the matching items will be used at any one time. For about half of the Text Match exercises, for example, a maximum of 16 matching items are randomly selected when you launch an exercise. See the Text Match menu screen below:

For all of the games highlighted in yellow above, 16 items are selected at random from all those available in the file: Drag & Match, 3 in a Row, Against the Clock, Pelmanism 1 Player, Pelmanism 2 Players, Invaders, Spin, Tower Block, Type, Hangman, Jumbled Words.

All of the other games will run through all available items in random order (although you have the option to limit the number of items using the - and + buttons on the screen): Flashcards, True or False?, Multi-Match, Maze, Pool, Football, Doors, Maze II, Invaders II, Snake, Jump!, Trainer.

On screens where exercises are based on a random selection of the available items, info appears on the screen to let you know how many items are being used, and the total number of items (in the example above 16 / 48). You can reduce the number of items further by clicking the - button (so you could have an exercise on screen based on 8 out of 80 items).

Students should attempt these exercises several times, as each time they restart the exercise (or launch it from the menu screen) it will use a different random selection of matching items.

Worksheets will print on multiple pages in TaskMagic3, but you also have the option to print worksheets based on a specified number of randomly selected items, rather than all of the file contents.

See the example below, which is a dominoes sheet based on 36 of the 48 items in the above file, printed over 3 pages:

If you have TaskMagic3 (trial, licensed or home-use versions) click here to open the Text Match file on which all of the above is based. It contains 48 matching items in English and French, based on False friends / Faux amis. (Right-click for option to save to your computer and edit.)

For lots more ready-made TaskMagic3 files, inlcuding links to other sites, see: http://www.mdlsoft.co.uk/readymade.htm

SEE THESE VIDEO TUTORIALS on making your own activities in Text Match

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