Information gap activities are those in which students exchange information in order to complete a required lesson plan activity.

Most information gap activities are done in pairs, with each student having a part of the information. They are especially effective when used as vocabulary activities during the pre-reading part of a reading lesson, but they can also be applied to reading comprehension and math activities as well.

For example, this strategy can be used to teach new vocabulary from a passage students haven’t yet read. Student A would have the vocabulary words written on strips of paper and student B would have the definitions of those words. Working together, they pair words and definitions to learn new vocabulary.

Vocabulary Activities

Information gap activities such as the example below function as vocabulary lessons after students have already encountered the vocabulary in the text.

Teacher and/or class prepare 2 lists of about 20 items. List A contains people and animals. List B contains objects. The aim is to combine one words from List A with one from List B. Example: What can a/an A do with a/an B? Why does a/an A need a/an B? Students create a list of combinations.

Or, Student A has pictures of newly introduced words and student B has the matching words. When matched correctly, they create an interesting shape.

Math Activities

The same principles of information gap activities can also be applied to Math lesson. Student A measures triangles of various sizes while student B measures circles of various sizes. Together, they answer questions that relate to the relationship between them.

Reading Comprehension Activities

An information gap activity can also be used as a main reading task when students need to share information they read from an assigned passage. An especially effective information gap activity is A jigsaw reading which is a type of activity that is done usually in groups. In a jigsaw reading, the teacher can use academic texts or texts from the students’ coursebook.

In the traditional method of jigsaw reading, the teacher divides a text into sections and assigns each group a section to read. Each group is responsible for understanding its part. Then new groups are formed with one member from each previous team. The new groups now have one representative from each section and each can share what s/he understood from his or her part of text. Students then can either write a summary of the text or answer questions about the entire text.

How An Information Gap Activity Should Be Structured

Consider also the following main issues in your lesson plans:

* Purpose: What is the purpose of the activity? For example, is the purpose to introduce, reinforce, use or bridge the gap between letters and their corresponding sounds? Or, is the purpose to reinforce words and their meanings?

* Organization: Who is in control – the class or the teacher? Once you develop the necessary classroom management skills, you can effectively implement information gap activities.

* Length of Lesson: The element of time must be considered. How long will this activity take?

* Ability level: Consider the ability of the class, homogeneous or heterogeneous groupings, and adaptations such as a backup plan when students can’t do the activity as planned.

* Materials and procedures: What is needed for the lesson? How will the teacher present information gap activities.

* Who? The level of the students including the ability and grade.

* What? What is the context for your information gap activity?

* How? Through which new points will the main skills be introduced? Example: Will students need to read a passage containing the new words before matching words and their corresponding definitions in pair work?

Possible Problems Using An Activity on an Information Gap

What if your lesson didn’t go as planned? A potentially well planned information gap lesson can backfire due to neglect of one of the main planning issues (see above).

Classroom management is typically the reason why information gap activities do not go as planned. It is worthwhile to invest time therefore, in the principles of classroom management before implementing any information gap activity.

Information gap activities are user-friendly for the teacher to recycle previously taught information. Some will take more time to implement, but it is an investment well worth the effort.

By: Dorit Sasson

About the Author: