A short passage and a cloze activity to do with students. (Make sure that you do the cloze before they read the passage!)

1. Salamander Crossing
In the spring, mole salamanders migrate. They travel on the
first rainy March night. Where are they going? These salamanders
are moving from their forest homes to vernal pools. Vernal pools
are big puddles that last through the whole spring. The
salamanders go to the vernal pools to mate and lay eggs.
But mole salamanders face a problem. As people have built
more homes, some salamanders have to cross roads to get to their
vernal pools. On rainy March nights, this can be a problem. Drivers
have trouble seeing the little amphibians. Many salamanders get
run over!
In many towns, people have tried to come up with a solution
to save the salamanders. Sometimes, volunteers come out with
flashlights. They warn drivers and help to make sure that the
salamanders get across the road safely. In one town, they have
even built a tunnel! The salamanders can crawl through the tunnel
and get to their vernal pools.
Emily Kissner 2011

2. Salamander Crossing Cloze
In the spring, mole migrate. They travel
on first rainy March night. are they
going? These are moving from their
homes to vernal pools.
pools are big puddles last through the whole
. The salamanders go to vernal
pools to mate lay eggs.
But mole face a problem. As
have built more homes,
salamanders have to cross to get to their
pools. On rainy March , this
can be a . Drivers have trouble seeing
little amphibians. Many salamanders
run over!
In many , people have tried to up
with a solution save the salamanders. Sometimes,
Emily Kissner 2011

3. come out with flashlights.
warn drivers and help make sure that the
get across the road
. In one town, they have
built a tunnel! The can crawl through the
and get to their vernal pools.
How did you use the CONTEXT of the words to figure out what to
add?
Independent 17/30 +
Instructional 12-16/30
Frustrational <12
Emily Kissner 2011

4. 1. salamanders
2. the
3. Where
4. Salamanders
5. Forest
6. Vernal
7. That
8. Spring
9. The
10. and
11. salamanders
12.people
13.some
14.roads
15.vernal
16.nights
17.problem
18.the
19.get
20.towns
21.come
22.to
23.volunteers
24.They
25. to
26.salamanders
27.safely
28.even
29.salamanders
30.tunnel
Emily Kissner 2011

5. Teacher Notes: Salamander Crossing Cloze
 Begin by teaching students about context clues. How can readers fill
in gaps in their reading? Model making inferences about missing
words and word meanings.
 Tell students that they will practice this kind of thinking with a cloze
activity. In a cloze, words are taken out of sentences. Their task is to
try to use the context to figure out the missing words. Some will be
easier than others! Be sure to keep the atmosphere light and
supportive.
 I do not generally have students score their own papers. Instead, I
collect them and score them that night. Only words that match the
target word exactly are counted as correct. In order to score at the
independent range, students only need to get 60% of the words
correct.
o Look carefully at student responses! To me, looking at what
kids put into the blanks is more interesting than their number
correct. Are they missing endings? This means that some
discussion of subject/verb agreement is in order. Are kids able
to use clues from one sentence to fill in a sentence that comes
later? This means that they are starting to take a more global
approach to reading.
 The next day, I project the passage and we talk about what goes into
the blanks. Depending on the class, you can do it together, or you can
give students the complete passage and have them read it and compare
their responses.
 Some kids will like this very much, while others will not.
Interestingly, it doesn’t break out along ability lines. Some very
capable readers will find this to be a pain, while others who are less
capable will enjoy the puzzle aspect of it. All in all, it’s just another
good tool for talking about reading.
Emily Kissner 2011