I chose to take my cloze test excerpt from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, as I
figured it would be a great book to go along with the podcast I discussed in the
last blog posting. My test is below, along with a word bank and results:
She looked up, surprised at herself. She put her __________ to her mouth,
unbelieving. __________ sun was setting. The __________ was closing itself in,
__________ a giant flower, with __________ passing of light. A __________ blew
among the pillars; __________ fire table bubbled its __________ pools of silver
lava. __________ wind stirred her russet __________, crooning softly in her
__________. She stood silently looking __________ into the great sallow
__________ of sea bottom, as __________ recalling something, her yellow
__________ soft and moist. “ ‘Drink __________ me with only thine ___________
eyes, and I will __________ with mine,’ ” she sang, __________, quietly, slowly. “
‘Or leave __________ kiss within the cup, __________ I'll not ask for __________.’ ”
She hummed now, moving __________ hands in the wind __________ so lightly, her
eyes __________. She finished the song.
__________ was very beautiful.
“Never __________ that song before. Did __________ compose it?" he
inquired, __________ eyes sharp.
“No. Yes. __________, I don't know really!” __________ hesitated wildly. “I
don't __________ know what the words __________; they're another language!”
"What __________?"
She dropped portions of __________ numbly into the simmering
__________. "I don't know." She __________ the meat forth a __________ later,
cooked, served on __________ plate for him. "It's __________ a crazy thing I
__________ up, I guess. I __________ know why."
He said __________. He watched her drown __________ in the hissing fire
__________. The sun was gone. __________, slowly the night came __________ to
fill the room, __________ the pillars and both __________ them, like a __________
wine poured to the ceiling. Only the silver lava's glow lit their faces.
Word Bank:
language shut the even
The distances house It
softly pool and fierce
don't are drew just
No The a She
like eyes the lava
Slowly pledge ears his
out meat nothing own
wine heard swallowing in
wind if dark moment
you hair a her
hand ever to
meats made of
Results:
Group A Group B Group C
Between 40% -
Below 40% 60% Above 60%
Richard (28%) Daniel (48%) Paige (70%)
William (30%) Sally (52%) Keith (74%)
James B. (32%) Kristen (54%) Kelly (78%)
Olivia (56%) Christopher (80%)
Matthew (58%) Jessica (84%)
Stephen (60%) Andrew (88%)
Brad (88%)
Michael (88%)
Heather (90%)
James I. (90%)
Chancey (98%)
I administered this test to an English IV Class at Brazoswood High School during my last
substitute position. Wow. I felt sorry for some of these kids, this test was a lot more difficult
than I thought it would be. When it takes out the 5th word, sometimes that word causes the
passage to be kind of confusing, even for me. I tried to choose a passage that had fewer
conversation and contained more varied nouns and adjectives, but it proved difficult.
I think what I take away from this testing was that I could break these kids up into groups to
discuss chapters, putting lower scoring students dispersed evenly throughout the higher and
middle students groupings. While grading some of these assessments, I noticed that most of the
lower scoring kids had a lot of trouble with context clues, especially since there is a song that
rhymes in the passage, and most of the low scoring kids missed the rhyming word. I can use this
to focus also on context clues and using previous information to link back to the words that
should be used. The test itself was weird, but I think what gives me the most to work with is the
specific words these kids missed, and work that into how to help them understand it in the future.
