Use revision checklists to give students practice proofreading their writing.
Cloze Stories
Writing Activities to Help Students Understand Context, Grammar, and Vocabulary
Writing A-Z Cloze Stories provide fill-in-the-blank writing activities that allow students to use picture
and context clues to write in missing story words, helping students understand the importance of context
and strengthening their grammar and vocabulary. The missing words in each story focus on a specific
element, such as nouns or verbs, to get students thinking critically about text and to monitor for
meaning while reading.
Deleting cues in sentences for cloze activities gives students the opportunity to strengthen reading
and writing skills through predicting word choice. Grammar cloze activities function by removing a
particular part of speech. Students must understand what part of speech is missing and fill in the
blank.
Each cloze activity strengthens students' abilities to identify the part of speech, use it
appropriately, and better understand its role in sentences. Each cloze story also helps students
build their vocabulary by providing multiple contexts for practice.
How to Use Cloze Stories
Use the printable or projectable version of each cloze story for students to practice different
parts of speech. Have students fill in the blanks as a whole class, in small groups, or
individually. English Language Learners (ELLs) and students that need grammar intervention greatly
benefit from cloze activities.
Have students create cloze activities from their own writing to practice with different parts of
speech, replace tired or overused words, and increase vocabulary.
Have students choose a piece of their writing. Then choose a part of speech and have
students mask it by placing a small sticky note over it. Ask pairs of students to trade
compositions and try to fill in the appropriate part of speech.
Have students identify words, such as adjectives or verbs, which repeat in their writing.
Cover each overused word with a small sticky note. Ask students to think of new words to
replace the words they use frequently.
Have students try replacing words in their compositions with their definitions and ask a
partner to figure out what word fits.
Showing of resources
Nouns
Our Camping Trip
A family decides to take an overnight camping trip. Told in first-person point of view, the story's narrator describes all the interesting things his family sees and does while on the trip.
It's the queen ant’s birthday! What a big day for the ant nest. The ants have many jobs to do before the queen ant wakes up from her nap. Everyone will have to work together to be ready for the party. Will the queen ant be surprised?
Some children decide to play hide-and-seek. As they play, they decide that they need some rules in order to make the game fun. What rules will they make?
James wants to buy a new cage for his hamster, but he doesn't have enough money. With a little math and a lot of hard work, he can earn the money he needs to buy a cage for his pet.
A moose moves to a new forest. He decides to meet the other animals. He soon realizes that he is different from most of the animals in the forest. Will he find any animals that are like him?
The narrator in this story loves butterflies, especially the orange and black ones. She watches them fly away in the fall and come back in the spring. She wants the butterflies to come to her house. How will she get them to come?
