The cloze sentence strategy is one of my favorite ESL tools. A cloze activity is one in which several key words or vocabulary are omitted from a text according to a specific criteria. Students are given the passage and required to fill in the missing information as they read in order to best construct meaning to the piece as a whole. Many teachers often provide a word bank and others may accept any word that fits appropriately in the given context. It is often used as a scaffolding device for ESL students across all WIDA levels. It can be used in various school settings such as "push in" classrooms, where non ESL teachers can use it as a tool to help ESL students in their mainstream classes, as well as in sheltered or pull out rooms, when ESL students have the aid of an ESL instructor.
Ways to Implement
Worksheets
Interactives
Why it's Beneficial to Students
This activity holds numerous benefits to students and their learning process. Cloze activities help students as well as help teachers better understand their students. This is a great assessment tool that informs a teacher on students' vocabulary and reading comprehension. It also tells teachers what kind of cuing system students are successfully applying during their reading process in order to construct meaning in situations where they may be faced with unknown vocabulary. Techniques such as using context clues, re-reading for clarification, monitoring for meaning, and making inferences are just a few of the reading strategies this tool promotes.
WIDA Standards
This activity meets the criteria for WIDA Standards in the k-12 setting. At the high school level, cloze activities can be used in all the standards, especially in the language of Social Studies. In this case, a teacher would want to create a cloze activity in outline form prior to the class. The ESL student would follow the lecture or PowerPoint while filling in the key words of the cloze outline. Teachers should make sure the outline is easy to follow, has various cues for the students to follow, and is appropriately paced in accordance to the lesson.
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