strategy for cloze CEM

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MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

strategy for cloze CEM

Post by MamaBear »

Hello, does anyone have any tips for completing cloze style questions. My ds gets stumped by them and apart from getting him to read more I cant think of any way to make it any easier for him. I told him to quickly run through the alphabet when trying to guess the word but I suspect there are better and more quicker ways!
Eg of what he is doing.

The best chestnut brown c_ _ _ers were prised from their spikey cases and lined up for ins_ _ _tion.

( CONKERS, INSPECTION)

Thanks
Okanagan
Posts: 1706
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:20 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by Okanagan »

In case of c_ _ _ers there are only certain letters which can logically follow "c". So it won't be "cb", "cc", "cd" etc.
Start by guessing the next letter as a vowel and see if that provides any inspiration. And then others which can logically follow - for example "ch", "cl", "cr". That reduces the possibilities.
MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by MamaBear »

Thank you Okanagan, I will try that with ds.
DIY Mum
Posts: 744
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:08 pm
Location: Not in a hole in the ground but in a land where once they dwelt-the Beormingas

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by DIY Mum »

You could also just block out the whole word and ask him to work out which word he would use in that space...
sometimes, missing letters in a word can faze kids (I know I go blank sometimes :oops: )

Trying to work out what the sentence is saying or talking about and taking it from there, helps to trigger a stream of words.

Some kids can 'see' the word fast enough and some don't. I had to apply some reverse psychology with one of my dc. Instead of filling letters in, I got her to blank out 2/3 letters in words until she got used to seeing missing letters in words.

With dc5, (in the beginning) when he couldn't work them out, we used to 'cheat'. By that, I mean we used an electronic spell checker (Chambers- which has a missing letter feature). Adv's: it's provides a list of possible words to go by, (which they can also learn), and it saves a lot of time!
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by mystery »

Get the child to use their "inner" voice while reading it including the happy words e.g. They say to themselves Kuh mmmmm urs. It can sometimes trigger some relevant words which the child can then see if they fit.

Look carefully though at the exact format your c e m paper will take for Cloze. Is this it?
MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by MamaBear »

Thanks Mystery and DIY Mum, very helpful advice. I'm very grateful.

Yes its for the Bucks CEM cloze.
sbarnes
Posts: 583
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:30 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by sbarnes »

I copied para's from newspapers with the odd word blanked out. DC then had to guess the word to complete the sentence. I also used paragraphs from the national geographical and also readers digest. It worked big time.
MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by MamaBear »

That's a great idea Sbarnes I did that for ds1 using random books, some classics some non fiction. DS1 is wordy and likes reading, ds2 is more NVR and maths orientated so the cloze tests do not come naturally to him. Great ideas thank you so much.
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by patricia »

Hi Mamabear

The cloze you have described in your first post will more than likely never turn up in a Bucks test as it does not lend itself to a multiple choice answer sheet.

The other 2 types however will probably appear.

1] Stacked Cloze - sentence, word missing 4 words stacked on top of each other in a vertical line.

2] Find the missing word cloze - sentence, word missing 5 possibilities written in a line above the sentence (horizontal line)

Patricia
MamaBear
Posts: 574
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:17 pm

Re: strategy for cloze CEM

Post by MamaBear »

thanks Patricia
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