Cloze activities can be used to develop word recognition and prediction skills. They also offer subject teachers opportunities to assess the learner's grasp of subject content. Importantly they require learners to engage with the text on a number of layers (semantic/syntactic), to draw on background knowledge and to develop a range of strategies for interpreting written information.

Integrating cloze

As you develop a cloze activity for your learners you should consider the following steps:

  • Choose texts that provide sufficient clues and supporting information to aid word identification.
  • Use texts at an appropriate reading level for your learners.
  • Select an appropriate number of words to delete. Don't make it so difficult that it becomes a guessing activity.
  • Leave all the words in the first 2-3 sentences of the text to let the readers get well into the passage and to set the context.
  • Provide clear instuctions to the learner about using online functions (what to do to get a hint, how to check their answers).