The effect of training in the use of cloze on the ability of fourth grade pupils to gain information from written discourse

Abstract

Two experimental groups and a control were employed for this research which was designed to measure the effect of cloze training upon the reading comprehension of fourth grade pupils when the training focused upon the use of structure words and verbalization by students concerning responses to cloze exercises. Three fourth grade classrooms in an elementary school in South Texas were randomly assigned to the two treatment groups and the control. Stratified random samples of passages, approximately one hundred words in length, were taken from three social studies textbooks. The passages were assigned to one of two forms of a cloze test of ability to gain information. The two forms were administered to a group of fourth grade students for the purpose of establishing reliability. Reliability scores of .909 and .933 were obtained for Form A and Form B respectively. Stratified random samples from the three textbooks were used to develop a series of ten cloze lessons, each containing two cloze exercises. Half of the exercises utilized the fifth-word deletion pattern and half utilized a structure word deletion pattern. ...