Fill in the Blanks

A fill in the blanks exercise is a learning activity where words or phrases are intentionally left out of a sentence, requiring the participant to complete it by inserting the missing elements. This helps learners practice and assess their understanding of the subject.

Prepare a fill in the blanks exercise with 10 to 20 missing words in several paragraphs about <the topic.>. Use normal sentences and omit some important words. Put the missing words, sorted alphabetically, into a column to the right of the paper or frame. (Without giving the words this exercise is much harder.) Each person works on their own to fill in the blanks. When everyone is ready (or the time is up) ask the participants to read out the paragraph - they can take turns to read a sentence each. Alternatively read out the paragraph yourself and wait at each placeholder for a participant to shout out the proper word.

Practicalities

Chat-GPT works well for this. A suitable prompt is

As a warmup 4C connect exercise for during a technical coding training, create a fill in the blank exercise with at least 10 missing words in several paragraphs. Target audience are experienced developers. Use, combine and rephrase in your own words these sentences and omit relevant words: …

Benefits

This is a self-correcting exercise because the redundancy of natural language helps with filling in the gaps. For the blanks filled by most of the group, you know what they already know.