In a traditional cloze passage some words have been deleted from a text and the students are asked to fill in the gaps. In an interactive cloze the specialist word is left in the sentence and, instead, a word that contributes to the meaning is left out. Students work individually to fill in the gaps with a suitable word/s and then compare and discuss their answers with a partner.
Interactive cloze activities teach the skills of: using context clues in working out unknown words; reading for meaning as opposed to word-by-word reading; predicting and understanding language structures; developing awareness of the reading process; using their background knowledge; using clues such as signal words and connectives and noticing and using information presented on a page such as headings, sub-headings and graphics. Discussion following the exercise gives students opportunities to use words orally in context, discuss concepts and actively process information. Interactive cloze activities can provide the teacher with valuable information on individual student's ability to handle language.
Teacher uses the structure of a poem or creative paragraph previously studied and deletes phrases rather than words. Students use their imagination to complete phrases. There are no correct answers. This may be completed co-operatively to increase talk-time and to share ideas and knowledge. Creative cloze allows students to be creative within a known structure and it is a scaffold to unsupported creative writing.
Watch this short video to see creative cloze being used in a year 9 english class
Teaching and learning sequence planning examples:
Primary level:
Secondary level:
Published on: 19 Jan 2018
