Cloze (C)
Description
Cloze is useful for
drawing attention to particular features of texts in order to help students to
understand how texts can be interpreted or constructed. The teacher prepares a
text for Cloze by deleting some
carefully selected words. Students, usually working together, read the text and
supply appropriate words to fill the gaps. Deleting title, adjectives or verbs
for students to replace can lead to intense and valuable discussions about
layers of meaning, and the connotations of particular words.
Procedure
Select a passage text of
appropriate level that is relevant to the topic/unit of work on which students
are working. This text can be reproduced in written form so that students have
their own copies, or it can be a common text in the form of, for example, a big
book or an overhead. Choose the particular language feature(s) you wish to
focus on, and delete words accordingly.
Either individually or in
groups, students choose words to fill in these gaps so that the text makes
sense.
During the task, teachers can
conduct informal discussions with students about word choice and writing
strategies as well as observe the strategies students use to spell words and
check structure of text. If students are doing written cloze, the work samples
can be analysed after the task is completed.
Link to Outcomes
Students describe and reason with patterns, structures and relationships
in order to understand, interpret, justify and make predictions.
Dynamic Strategies
Think/Clarification, Experience/Information
Tips
Cloze can be used to teach
and assess a range of skills and understandings e.g. Teachers can use cloze to
decide the extent to which students:
§
understand the
structure of the text
§
understand
language features including grammar
§
identify and use
context cues
§
use a range of
listening strategies
§
use a range of
reading and spelling strategies
Adapted from Tasmanian
Education Department,