A Fun Reading Comprehension Activity

Example A – For beginning students.

In this example, the last letters of the last word of each line
have been removed or, if the line ends in a short word like
“a” or “as”, a word has been omitted. As students read the
article, they are asked to finish the cut off words and to add
the simple missing words. In this level, unlike the models for
intermediate and advanced students, no words are missing
from the title. Depending on your learner’s abilities, and the
article you select, you may want to provide you learner with
a word bank that includes the missing letter combinations
and the missing words. This could be something you do the
first few time you do the exercise, and then phase out as the
learner’s comprehension abilities grow.

Sample Word Box:

Match these missing letters and words to the right spot in
the article.
th ire (letters) d ents ing a
eed San son’s (letters) ly son’s (letters)
ents as (letters) as (word) wn ican unt
cher .S. a come (letters) a
a st ege ents pute

Does your article make sense?

Example B – For intermediate students.

In this example, the last word of each line has been cut off.
As students read the article, they should think of what the
missing word could be. Students should write down, either
on the paragraph or in a notebook, what they think the
missing word is. When everyone is finished reading and
guessing, read the complete article aloud. What is important
is not whether or not the students chose exactly the same
word as the author, but whether or not they words they
chose conveyed appropriate meaning based on the text. For
example, in the sixth line (the fifth missing word), the author
finished the line “a resource needed to compute;” working
only from the context clues, your learner might suggest the
word “solve”, “understand”, “figure out”, or even “learn.”
Based on the information given, these answers all make
sense, and most have a similar meaning to “compute.” On
the other hand, if the learner suggests words like “see” or
“hear,” then there is difficulty with comprehension, even
though the part of speech is correct.

Example C – For advanced students.

In this example, the first and last word of each line has been
cut off. Note that we have been careful to leave words that
provide context clues. For example, in the third paragraph,
lines four and five, we have left the word “San” because
“Francisco” has been removed. As with Example C, the
purpose of the exercise is not to get all of the words right,
but to try to understand meaning and parts of speech.
Because more words are missing, it might be necessary to
help learners guess at the missing words. For example,
paragraph 4 reads “ . . . while easy math tasks such
_____________ _______________ require only a small fraction of
a ___________________ __________________ memory, harder
computations _________________ _________________ more.”
Your conversation with a student about this paragraph might
point out:
- We know from the context clues such as “while” and
“such” that we are comparing two different things.
- The most important clue for the first two blanks is “easy
math tasks.” We know they want an exam. What you
do you think is an easy math task?
- If we are talking about memory, and how much is
needed, do you think that the last two blanks might be
talking about how much memory is needed for harder
computations, or problems?
- Note: The fourth blank in the paragraph is probably the
hardest to solve. If your learner can realize that blank 3
asks for an answer like “human’s,” “student’s” or
“people’s” (with or without knowing the possessive
form) then he or she might be able to figure out that
the fourth blank requires an adjective that describes
memory. Answers such as “brain,” “stored,” or
“internal” should probably been seen as understanding
the material.