The Comprehensible Classroom’s

NOW WHAT?
a during reading activity from
Martina Bex

Copyright © 2014 Martina Bex ● www.martinabex.com ● The Comprehensible Classroom

 NOW WHAT?
an activity from Lessonstream.org

OVERVIEW:
This activity came from lessonstream.org: http://lessonstream.org/2013/02/19/elf-story/. They
call it “Storytelling Gap Fill”. It is a during-reading activity that will provide scaffolding for
students and give them an opportunity to make logical inferences about what will happen
next.
PREPARATION:
1. Choose a text to read aloud in class (an article, story, book chapter, etc.)
2. Choose 8-10 phrases or sentences from the text that (1) are interesting in some way, (2) can
be predicted based on context without great difficulty.
3. On your copy of the text (you may choose to make a photocopy), underline or highlight
each of the phrases or sentences that you selected. This is the “Teacher’s Text”.
4. Prepare a worksheet for students by typing out the selected phrases or sentences in a
table, out of order, so that students can cut them out. Each phrase or
sentence would then be on its own “card”. *Alternatively, students can
write out their own cards if you do this activity last-minute or don’t wish
to make photocopies.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Photocopy and distribute the worksheet to each student.
2. Clarify meaning for each of the phrases on the worksheet. You could circle and personalize
them as well, depending on how comfortable your students are with the language that they
contain.
3. Have your students cut apart the cards and lay them out in front of them. Consider having
your students sit on the floor for this activity to change things up a bit! If not, laying the
cards on their desks would be just fine, too.
4. Explain to students that all of the phrases in front of them are in the text that you are about
to read to them. While you read, you will pause every so often. When you pause, they will
need to look at their cards and figure out which one is the most likely phrase to come next.
They should hold up that card!
5. Read the Teacher’s Text, and stop everytime that you come to the beginning of one of the
underlined or highlighted phrases or sentences.
6. Signal your students to hold up the card with the phrase or sentence that they think comes
next in the reading (the phrase that is underlined).
7. After all students have held up their cards, signal to the class to read their card aloud.
8. No need to correct--just continue reading, and students will quickly learn whether or not
they were correct.

Copyright © 2014 Martina Bex ● www.martinabex.com ● The Comprehensible Classroom ● 2

 NOTES FOR THE TEACHER
The sample activity included on Page 4 of this file is to be used with Chapter 2
of the novel Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos by Carrie Toth, 2014 CSCTFL Teacher of
the Year. The activity is included with written consent from the copyright holder, TPRS
Publishing Inc.

Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos is a fictitious novel set in Spain and written with 200 high
frequency words in Spanish. It is written in the past tense, and its sheltered vocabulary
makes it a perfect read for late Spanish 1 or early Spanish 2 when students are just
beginning to work with the past tenses. With bullfighting at the heart of the story, it
makes a perfect complement to any unit about Spain in general or bullfighting
specifically! Read the first two chapters of the novel free and order it from this link:
https://tprstorytelling.com/products-page/featured-novels/bianca-nieves-y-los-7-
toritos-novel/

To read about how Carrie uses novels in her classes (and much more!), visit her blog:
http://somewheretoshare.com

To find more activities for TPRS Publishing and other novels, visit this link: http://
martinabex.com/category/novels/

To find more reading activities to use when reading any text, visit this link: http://
martinabex.com/category/reading-activities/

The Spanish flag clipart image on2015

the worksheet
CC-BY Cliparts.cocame from Cliparts.co:

Copyright © 2014 Martina Bex ● www.martinabex.com ● The Comprehensible Classroom

●3●
 Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos
Cut or tear apart these eight cards and lay them out, face up, in front of you. Listen to Chapter 2 as
it is read aloud to you, and when the reader pauses, hold up the card that most likely comes next.

es importante
con admiración capturarlo
inmediatamente

pero ahora eran

¡Sábado se escapó!
enormes

interrumpir la Salomé no estaba

conversación contenta

tocándole la mano
Ella necesita amigas
románticamente

Copyright © 2014 Martina Bex ● www.martinabex.com ● The Comprehensible Classroom ● 4

Posted with Written Consent from TPRS Publishing, Inc ● www.tprstorytelling.com ● Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos Copyright © 2015
The Comprehensible Classroom’s

NOW WHAT?
a during reading activity from
Martina Bex

Copyright © 2014 Martina Bex ● www.martinabex.com ● The Comprehensible Classroom