Cloze Procedure

Middle elementary students and above, however, adaptations could be made for younger children.

  • Reinforces English language structures
  • Reinforces reading skills
  • Reinforces metalinguistic skills

Strategy steps:

  1. Develop a cloze passage omitting every 7th (or 8th or 10th) word, for example:cloze passage example
  2. Have the students read the entire passage before they start filling in the blanks.
  3. When they are done, students compare their work with a projection of the complete story and circle any words that are incorrect.
  4. Conference with each student regarding incorrect responses noting if he/she used a word in the same syntactic class (substituting a noun for a noun, a verb for a verb, etc.) and whether or not the meaning was similar to the correct response.
  5. Provide individual instruction specific to the student’s responses.

For younger children:

  1. Develop a cloze passage (MAZE) omitting a limited selection of words, for example, nouns or the main verb of the sentence, giving options for the responses. For example:

    2. cloze passage example

  2. Have the students read the entire passage before they start filling in the blanks.
  3. Guide the children through each sentence discussing the responses and have them determine which one is correct. They do not write the correct response at this time.
  4. Children write the correct responses in the blanks independently.
  5. As the children become familiar with the procedure on subsequent passages, give them more responsibility for working independently.
  6. When they are working more independently, follow steps 3, 4, and 5 as described for older students.