Clozes, also know as “gap-fills,” are good tools for assessing vocabulary and comprehension and for helping students learn about context clues.

Most clozes you find on the web, I think, are fairly useless because they create the clozes using some kind of formula instead of omitting words strategically. Having students create clozes, and then having their classmates complete them, maximize their learning benefit. I’ve written a longer explanation of how I use them at Use “LearnClick” For An Excellent Metacognitive Lesson.

Here are my choices for The Best Tools For Creating Clozes (Gap-Fills):

I like LearnClick a lot. You can read more here how I use it (unfortunately, it’s begun to charge a a subscription fee for use).

Smile is a free web tool from Michigan State University, and allow teachers (and students) to easily create clozes, drag-and-drop exercises, and sequencing activities. They also allow you to use audio and video with the activities, and will host them as well.

The British Council has recently unveiled a “gap fill generator”. As the CASLS blog writes: “The program will automatically select difficult and topical words according to your specifications and generate a cloze activity that you can print out.” Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t appear that you can easily identify exactly where you want the blanks to appear, unlike in the two previous tools I’ve mentioned. You also have to register — for free — in order to use it.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

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