Procedure Guide: CONNOTATIVE CLOZE

.

Purpose: To guide students to discriminate among words to determine the most appropriate.

Preparation

• In the text to be read, identify several words that have multiple synonyms.
• Make a transparency of the text, replacing each identified word with a blank and placing the omitted word plus five other words in parentheses after the blank.

Example:

The May sun _____________(beat, flamed, glimmered, shimmered, shined, streamed) down on the black limousine, and Tracy winced as her bare legs touched the car seat.

Before

• Share with students the purpose of this strategy.
• Using the transparency and a think-aloud, model selecting for the first omitted word, the most appropriate word within the parentheses

During

• In pairs, have students write their choice from the remaining cloze options as they read the text to one another.

After

• Have the pairs join another pair and discuss their choices.
• Have the entire class discuss their choices and try to come to a consensus.
• Give students the correct answers and discuss any that they did not choose.

Assessment

Student choices at each step