How to Use Cloze Stories to Teach Unit Vocabulary

Thank you to Jan Tappan for submitting vocabulary cloze stories for the third grade Open Court units.

Cloze stories, for those who need a refresher, are stories with key words left out. Cloze stories can be used to assess student comprehension because if a student is understanding what they are reading they will fill in the correct word.

Using cloze stories when teaching vocabulary is a great way to have students practice using new vocabulary in context. Ms. Tappan says:

The cloze stories are designed to have students use the vocabulary clarifying strategies in reverse – the kids use the clues and apposition in the story with what they know about the vocabulary words to figure out what word goes where. I have the words on a word wall listed under the part of speech, so they have those clues to use too – the part of speech is listed after each blank. They can be modified to include whatever words the teacher wants.

See sample