How to Use the Cloze Procedure for Assessing Reading Comprehension

The cloze procedure can be used with students at all levels of reading ability to assess reading comprehension or test vocabulary knowledge. It involves taking a passage of text that students have previously read, and deleting words from it. Students must supply the omitted words to complete the sentences. Completing these sentences requires critical thinking skills and allows teachers to gauge how well students are able to use semantic and syntax cues to construct meaning from the text. It can also be used to determine how well students have retained knowledge of content or vocabulary.

Semantic and Syntax Cues Help Students to Construct Meaning from Text

Semantic cues are based on vocabulary and word meanings. Students using semantic cues to figure out the missing words might substitute a word with a similar meaning in place of the correct word. For example, if the word leaped was omitted from the sentence, The dog leaped over the fence, a student using semantics as a cue might replace it with another word with a similar meaning, such as hopped or jumped. This substitution would still create a sentence that makes sense, and it would indicate that the student understands the meaning conveyed by the sentence.

Syntax cues are based on sentence structure and grammar. In English, adjectives generally come before the noun, and verbs come after the noun. For example, you would say Jenny has a blue bicycle, not Jenny has a bicycle blue; similarly, you would say Carl ran upstairs, not Carl upstairs ran. When nouns, adjectives or verbs are omitted from a sentence, syntax cues help students figure out the missing word by what part of speech belongs in the blank.

How to Create a Cloze Exercise

To create a cloze worksheet, select an excerpt from a book that the students are currently reading. The selection should be one to three paragraphs long, depending on the reading ability of the students. Type out the passage and delete a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives and articles, leaving a blank space. Make all of the blank spaces the same length.

For example, a cloze exercise to test comprehension of a novel might look like this:

When she came __________ the house, Sarah saw that there was a ___________ on the table. She picked it up and __________ it, and what she saw made her _________ widen in surprise. It was from Aunt Martha, who _________ that she was very ill, and __________ Sarah to come and visit.

To use the cloze procedure to test for vocabulary knowledge in the content areas, type out the vocabulary definitions and leave out the vocabulary word. For example, The _____________ is the layer between Earth's crust and core.

The cloze procedure can be adapted to readers with different abilities. For early readers you can list two or three word choices below each blank, or supply the first letter of the missing word. For vocabulary tests, you can provide a word bank with all of the missing words at the top of the page.

Sources:
Tompkins, Gail. Literacy for the 21st Century, 3rd Edition. Pearson Education, 2003.

Instructional Strategies Online http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/cloze/index.html