Word Work Fill in the Blanks & Editing Tasks

1. Word Work Fill in the Blanks & Editing Tasks EAL B10L

2. General Overview When creating a “Fill in the Blank” passage one should be mindful of the specific skill they are targeting: • Syntactic The predictable structure of a sentence and the ways words are combined to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax includes classes of words (e.g., verbs) and their functions (e.g., subjects) • Semantic/Lexical/MorphologicalSemantics The lexicon of a language includes all the words or vocabulary of that language that are used or understood by a particular person or groups. Words can also be studied for their meaningful parts or morphemes. • Graphophonics The study of the relationships between the symbols and sounds of a language and includes letter or sound relationships and patterns.

3. Example of Syntactic In this type of targeted activity you can change or remove words or punctuation. The Gingerbread Man Once upon a time there werean old woman who loved bakegingerbread. She willbake gingerbread cookies, cakes, houses and gingerbread people, all decorated with chocolate and peppermint, caramel candies and colored frosting? She livingwith her husbandson a farm at the edge of town. The sweet spicy smell of gingerbread brought children skippedand running to seenwhat would be offered that day. Unfortunately the children eatup the treats so fast that the old woman had a hard time keeping her supply of flour and spices to continue making the batches of gingerbread. Sometimes she suspected little hands of having reachthrough her kitchen window because gingerbread pieces and cookies would disappear. One time a whole gingerbread house vanishmysteriously. She tellher husband, "Those naughty children are at it again. They don't understand all they have to do is knock on the door and I'll gavethem my gingerbread treats."

4. Example of Semantics In this type of targeted activity you change or insert words that do not fit or would change the meaning. The Gingerbread Man Once on a time their was an old woman whoseloved baking gengerbread. She would bake gingerbread cookyes, cakes, houses and gingerbread person, all decorated with chocolate and peppermint, caramel candies and colored freezing. She lived with her husband on a farmerat the edge of town. The sweet spicy smeltof ofgingerbread brought children skipping and running to see what would be offered that day. Unfortunately the chillderns gobbled up the treats so fast that the old womenhad a hard hard time keeping her supply of flour and spices to continue making the batches of gingerbread. Sometimes she suspected little hands of having reached through her kitchen window because gingerbread pieces and cookies would disappear. One time a whole gingerbread house vanished mysteriously. She told her husband, "Those naughty children are at it again. They don't understand all they have to do is knock on the door and I'll give them my gingerbread treats."

5. Example of Graphophonics In this type of targeted activity you can change or remove parts of words. In this example you could remove all of the suffixes. You might also remove one or two letters from some words. The Gingerbread Man Once upon a time there was an old woman who loved baking gingerbread. She would bake gingerbread cookies, cakes, houses and gingerbread people, all decorated with chocolate and peppermint, caramel candies and colored frosting. She lived with her husband on a farm at the edge of town. The sweet spicy smell of gingerbread brought children skipping and running to see what would be offered that day. Unfortunately the children gobbled up the treats so fast that the old woman had a hard time keeping her supply of flour and spices to continue making the batches of gingerbread. Sometimes she suspected little hands of having reached through her kitchen window because gingerbread pieces and cookies would disappear. One time a whole gingerbread house vanished mysteriously. She told her husband, "Those naughty children are at it again. They don't understand all they have to do is knock on the door and I'll give them my gingerbread treats."