The "reading closure" procedure is when students use whatever knowledge and context they have to fill in the blanks and complete a passage. Because the teacher chooses which words will be omitted from the passage, she controls which comprehension strategies will be tested. For example, a teacher could delete the second appearance of a particular character's age to test students' abilities to cross-check content in the passage. Cloze tests can also evaluate students' prediction skills, phonics, cueing skills and vocabulary, in addition to general readability of the passage.
A cloze test should examine students' ability to use the cycle of predicting, justifying, comparing and discussing the material. When a teacher first asks a student to complete a passage, she introduces the text and asks the student to predict what will happen in the passage. Once the prediction is made, the student suggests a word to fill the first blank. The teacher asks the student to justify the choice, after which the teacher ask how that answer compares to other possibilities, thus encouraging relevant discussion.
Systems for assessing cloze tests vary from loose to strict, based upon interpretation. In the strictest sense, words used to fill the blanks are either correct or no credit is given. According to looser rubrics, however, or ones where the lessons being tested could produce multiple answers that correctly apply the relevant concepts, several different words could receive partial -- or even full -- credit.
Cloze tests help to identify student reading problems. Problems can be as simple as the reading material being too difficult, or it can identify that a single specific reading skill has either not been developed or is not being used actively. Cloze tests help teachers become aware of issues their elementary students are unaware of and are incapable of expressin. They also help students understand the reading skills they use, in addition to the ones they struggle with, like word tracking or identifying parts of speech.