It's a mundane, rote activity, isn't it? Completing a word search doesn't require the kind of soul searching that crosswords do. After all, the answers are already there. All we have to do is use our own special search method, a method each of us has developed in his own way over the years, and then the words magically appear. It's beautiful. The word search is the "Where's Waldo" of the language world.
Cloze Reading works like a word search designed to support reading comprehension. The what and why of Cloze Reading is simple:
A Cloze Reading Activity is a paragraph or list of statements left with empty blanks where key words must go. Students are given a reading task (fiction or nonfiction) and its matching cloze reading activity to review PRIOR to reading the assigned excerpt. Then, as students read, they discover the key words that must be placed on each blank to "cloze" (lol) the open spaces (complete the cloze activity sensibly).
This method has been used a number of ways. You can find cloze passages that focus on conjugation for grammar, major events and dates for history, characterization for literature... the list goes on and on. The only limit imposed by cloze reading is that you must often create the passage you need.
Don't be intimidated; you're already a word search star. ;) Here's how cloze reading could lighten the load in your classroom:
First, reading is immediately rewarded with a developing product. Students often rebel against reading in class because it produces no immediate fruits; they can be left feeling uncertain about whether or not they are "getting" what they are supposed to be "getting." With cloze reading, students can tell whether or not they are on the right track because the key word blanks are specific to obvious concepts in the reading material. This is also why you must often create your own cloze reading activities according to what your students are reading; the key words MUST SYNC in logical ways that the students can comprehend. When the activity is well written and aligned with reading material, your students will feel a sense of accomplishment as they "discover" each key word, the same sense you feel when you find word search clues.
Second, cloze reading is easy to grade. After a student completes a cloze passage, the marking is as simple as reading through to be sure the appropriate key words were chosen. Some cloze reading activities even provide a word bank so that students know whether or not a word is an option for filling in a blank; that narrows the scope of answers even more which leads to MUCH EASIER GRADING.
Third, cloze reading activities are great study tools. Once the passage is all filled in, the student has a summary of the reading assignment in his hand. You could grade it and assign a numerical value, or you could check it off as an in-class activity and send it home with the child for study. Either way, after it's completed and recorded, the cloze passage becomes a great way to quickly review lengthy texts; it can be used as a reference for class discussion; it can be used as a cheat sheet for essay writing. In every way that a child could use a summary, he could use his cloze reading work. You don't have to take my word for it. Try cloze reading just once.
I won't ask you for the investment required in creating an original activity just yet. Find one online, make some copies and distribute the passage and cloze reading activity together. Watch your students turn reading into the fun-and-games word search process we know so well and love. Then come back and tell me about it.
I love forward to hearing about the attitudes of the students and how you felt when the process was over.
Here's one of my originals, just in case you don't feel like trolling through search engine results:
Cloze Reading on the Rise of Humanism
(The reading assignment is in a textbook, so I can't post that. Sorry!)
Puzzles and Pencil Toppers,
-Ms. Moss
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