1.

Oral Cloze - This is a research-based strategy

that is essentially designed to model fluency and
assign students an observable task of involvement.
Essentially, the teacher reads out loud omitting
strategic words that students are to fill in. The
teacher uses rise and inflection to help students to
know which words to fill in. Here are the benefits:
Struggling readers stay engaged because they are
trying to determine which words to fill in.
Students are paying extra close attention to the
teachers tone of voice, rise, inflection and timing.
The teacher can immediately tell if a student is lost
or not actively following along.
Response to instruction is greatly increased
because students can no longer listen half-heartedly.
When I first introduce Oral Cloze to my students, I
explicitly point out that I do it to keep them all
engaged and to check that everybody is following
along. I tell them that I do not like to embarrass
anybody during read-alouds, which earns the
strategy instant credibility.

2. Partner Cloze - Because Oral Cloze normally

takes the place of read-alouds in my class, I use
Partner Cloze to help build reading fluency. Partner
Cloze is just like Oral Cloze, except students take
turns "being the teacher" with their partners. Here
are the benefits:
Students who are embarrassed doing read-alouds
love the Partner Cloze alternative.
Every single student is getting fluency practice
instead of just the student reading to the class.
Every single student is engaged (either they are
reading, or they are actively listening).
All of the pairs read at once, so students have
enough time to read several paragraphs each.
Each student has to actively employ timing and
inflection so that partners can tell which words to fill
in.
Teachers have an opportunity to patrol and listen to
many readers in a short period of time.
Be sure that you spend adequate time teaching
students the procedures to Partner Cloze. I only use
Partner Cloze as a second read, after I've already

used Oral Cloze and performed some sort of pair

share. Before my kids begin, I make sure that they
know who is going to read which paragraphs. I preassign them numbers (1s and 2s) and have 1s cloze
the odd paragraphs and 2s cloze the even
paragraphs. I give them a few minutes to chose 2 or
3 words beforehand. Because I project all of the
texts I teach on to my whiteboard, I can actually
number the paragraphs to make sure that there is no
confusion. Lastly, before we start, I always make
sure that my "Partner Share Procedures" are written
on the board:
Turn and face your partner.
Speak slowly and clearly.
When choosing words to omit, try to chose words
that come at the end of a phrase. Do not choose
words that are three letters or less.
Use your voice to give hints to your partner for what
words to fill in!