TED 690 Literature Review

Rogelio Reynoso-Guzman
ID #: 023822157
National University
1/25/2017

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Title: Cloze Testing

Author: McKenna, M. (2016)
Purpose: To raise the content literacy level of my students and to ensure the understanding of
the terminology used within the specified unit.
References: McKenna, M. & Robinson, R. (2014). Teaching through Text Reading and Writing
in the Content Area (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Inc.

Rationale
It is widely known that students often find Math to be one of the most difficult subjects.
Within math, students are often stump by work problem and length instruction. The reason
behind student the difficulty of the word problem doesnt lie behind the math itself but rather the
lack of mastery of the terminology. Students often failed to understand what the question is
saying or asking of them. Teachers often find that the unit students do the worse in, happens to
be the one with the most word problems since it places a lot of emphasis on content literacy
specially the terminology used in the chapter. As we have progressed through our careers we
have covered many strategies and tools to ensure students achieve content literacy. One of the
best ways to focus on terminology is the cloze testing which is a form of assessment that would
allow teachers to test their content literacy without relying too heavily on reading levels but
rather previous knowledge learned within the class. This assessment would allow ELL students
and students with Individualized Educations Plans (who often have low reading levels) to have
the same opportunity to succeed. I would have to have to provide an accommodation to these
students which would be the randomized word bank in page 7. The randomized word bank
would allow non-English speakers to have a fair chance with this type of assessment.
Cloze results are much different that your traditional ones, a good score is much lower
than one that would be considered good on more traditional tests (McKenna, pg. 46, 2014). The

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book describes the three categories of scores which include Independent level 60 percent or
higher, Instructional level 40 to 59 percent, Frustration level 39 percent or lower (McKenna, pg.
46, 2014). As a teacher, you must take this into consideration before creating any type of rubric.
An A student may end up getting D or C in the traditional method of grading which is to be
expected. The reason for the big gap between cloze testing and a regular vocabulary test is the
fact that a cloze test would test the students ability to analyze the selection given and use content
and terminology to arrive at the answer. While a vocabulary test, only checks to see whether or
not the student knows the definition. Teachers are looking for student understanding, which is
best shown by the students ability to take the knowledge learned in class and be able to apply it
to a real life situation.