In this strategy, short texts or passages from various texts are taken and typed onto a separate sheet of paper with every 7-9 word removed from the text and a blank inserted. Students read the passage and attempt to determine the missing words. In order to succeed, they must use meaning making skills and background knowledge of English grammar. Cloze reading could also be modified to remove only a specific part of speech, such as nouns or verbs, if students need more practice with this part of grammar.

 

If I were to teach this in my classroom, I would initially introduce this strategy to my students in a reading mini-lesson in which I model the strategy. A large class-sized book or passage written on chart paper with sticky notes covering missing words or blanks inserted would be great for modeling. As I work through the passage, my thoughts are shared aloud with the students, such as “What would make sense in this blank? A noun, verb, or adjective?” and “‘The dog yellow the ball’ does not make sense, so yellow is not the missing word”. By modeling my thinking out loud, students can learn how they should be thinking and using this strategy. Then, I would provide students guided, partner practice time. I would allow the students to choose their texts from pre-selected texts that I had already prepared Cloze Reading sheets for. I could type out the text on a piece of paper or place sticky notes over the words in the book if the pages were large enough. Students could check their answers and discuss after they complete it. At the end of guided practice, we would gather as a whole class to share and discuss what we learned.

 

I love this strategy because it is extremely useful and can be an assessment tool and a teaching tool in the classroom. Students can be taught this strategy and use it with future texts when they encounter unknown words. They will use a similar thought process, such as “What part of speech should go here?” and “What would make sense here?” to determine the meaning unknown words in a text. Also, once students are familiar with this strategy, it can be used to assess students as well as determine appropriate level books. Short, one-on-one sessions with the teacher or aide can consist of a student reading a passage from a text chosen by the teacher. Based on the results, the teacher will know whether this student needs more challenging texts to read, less challenging texts to read, more practice with certain parts of speech, and/or more practice with comprehension strategies.