Topic: Sample Cloze Exercises.

Topic: Sample Cloze Exercises

10-second review: Two types of cloze exercises: every fifth word deletions and content word deletions.

Title: “The Effects of Sentence Combining on the Reading Comprehension of Fourth grade Students.” PA Wilkinson and D Patty. Research in the Teaching of English (February 1993), 104-125. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Sample cloze sentence #1:

The bee protects its………. by stinging its………. with its poisonous stinger which has hooks on it. As the………. pushes the stinger into the………., the hooks dig into the ………., and when the bee………. away, the tightly holding ………. pull the stinger ………. of the bee.

Sample cloze sentence #2:

The bee protects its family ………. stinging its enemies………. its poisonous stinger ………. has hooks on it. ………. the bee pushes the stinger ………. the skin, the hooks dig ………. the skin, and ………. the bee flies away, the tightly holding hooks ………. stinger out ………. the bee.

Here’s how and why Cloze is used:

What is Cloze Procedure?

Cloze procedure is a technique in which words are deleted from a passage according to a word-count formula or various other criteria. The passage is presented to students, who insert words as they read to complete and construct meaning from the text. This procedure can be used as a diagnostic reading assessment technique.

What is its purpose?

It is used:

• to identify students' knowledge and understanding of the reading process
• to determine which cuing systems readers effectively employ to construct meaning from print
• to assess the extent of students' vocabularies and knowledge of a subject
• to encourage students to monitor for meaning while reading
• to encourage students to think critically and analytically about text and content

How do I do it?

To prepare materials for Cloze exercises, any of the following techniques may be used:

1. Select a self-contained passage of a length appropriate for the grade level of the students being assessed. Use materials easily read by the students.
2. Leave the first and last sentences and all punctuation intact.
3. Carefully select the words for omission using a word-count formula, such as every fifth word or other criteria. To assess students' knowledge of the topic or their abilities to use semantic cues, delete content words which carry meaning, such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs. To assess students' use of syntactic cues, delete some conjunctions, prepositions and auxiliary words.
4. When preparing the final draft of the passage, make all blanks of equal length to avoid including visual clues about the lengths of omitted words.
5. Have the students read the entire passage before they fill in the blanks.
6. Encourage the students to fill each blank if possible.
7. Although there should be no time limit for this exercise, the time necessary for completion should be noted.
8. Suggest that students reread the completed passage.

Taken from http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cloze/index.html.

Comment: The examples, from this particular study, are somewhat different from the directions for Cloze taken from this Web site. RayS.