3.3 Part 3 Short Story Cloze & Title Selection

Part 3 of the A2 Flyers Reading and Writing paper is a gapped narrative plus a title. It has 6 questions and 6 marks. Candidates copy the correct word into each of five gaps, then choose the best title from three options. The part begins with an example. As with Parts 1 and 2, correct spelling is required, and children should copy clearly rather than in joined-up writing that hides letters.

The Handbook for Teachers (2024) states what is in the box: the missing words are nouns, adjectives and verbs (present and past tense). The 2026 format page summarises the skill as reading for specific information and gist, then copying words. Both descriptions matter. Gaps 1–5 test specific information (the exact word that fits this sentence). Question 6 tests gist (what the whole story is about).

What the page looks like

A word box sits above a short story. One example gap is already completed so children can see that they copy a word from the box, not a word they invent. Five more gaps follow in the narrative. After the story, three titles appear. Only one title covers the whole text.

There are extra words in the box. A leftover adjective is as tempting as a leftover noun. Using every word is not the task.

Read the whole story first

The Handbook is explicit: candidates should read the whole text to get a general idea of what it is about before trying to complete the first gap. Lexical and grammatical competence are both being tested, so children need the sentences around the gap, not only the two words on either side.

A useful classroom order:

1. Read the example and the title-style opening of the story.
2. Read the whole narrative without writing.
3. For each gap, guess which kind of word could go in — noun, adjective, present verb, past verb — before looking back at the box.
4. Confirm the guess from the options.
5. Copy the chosen word exactly.
6. Only then look at the three titles, asking "Which sentence is true of the whole story?"

Guessing word class first stops the child from dropping storm into every exciting gap because storms are memorable.

Grammar around the gap

Help children identify words or structures that show what kind of word the answer is likely to be. The Handbook's own example is the one to keep: if the gap is preceded by some, the answer cannot be a countable singular noun. Some sugar or some people can work; some storm (meaning one storm) does not.

Other Flyers-level clues:

• After a / an → usually a singular countable noun (a storm, an island, a restaurant).
• After the → a noun the story has already made definite (the restaurant, the sky).
• After was / were / is / isn't / looked → often an adjective (ready, missing, hungry, closed) or a past participle used as description.
• After a subject in a narrative → often a past-tense verb (pushed, cut, packed), because Flyers stories typically run in the past.
• After to (infinitive) → a base verb (to cook, to sail), not a past form.
• Before a noun → often an adjective (strong winds, small hotel).
• Plural clues: these, many, two, a verb like were.

Tense is a mark-winner. The box may offer push and pushed, or only the past form. If the story says "Harry …… the boat away from the rocks", a present verb is the wrong time even if the meaning is right. Copy the form that is in the box; do not change pushed into pushing on the line.

Worked mini-example (original teaching story)

Five gaps, then gist

The story below is a teaching model. It uses Flyers wordlist items. It is not a copied sample-paper task.

Word box: village, stream, hungry, packed, storm, missing, tent, ready, pushed, castle, pepper

Example: Last Saturday, Emma and her parents drove to a small village in the hills.

They wanted to have a picnic beside a quiet (1) …………. Emma's dad (2) ………… sandwiches, apples and a bottle of lemonade into his rucksack. When they arrived, Emma helped him put the food on a rug. Then the sky went dark and a sudden (3) ………… arrived, with rain and strong winds. They (4) ………… the rug under a tree and ran to the car. The sandwiches were wet and everyone was (5) …………, but they laughed and ate biscuits instead. "Next time we'll check the weather," said Mum.

Teaching answers:

1. stream — after a quiet you need a singular place noun; castle is a place but not "beside" in this picnic scene the way a stream is, and village is already used in the example.
2. packed — a past-tense verb after the subject Emma's dad, matching the past narrative. Keep the frame past simple: past perfect (had packed) is not on the Flyers grammar list (section 6.1), so a Flyers-style story never needs it. Ready is an adjective and would need a different frame ("the food was ready").
3. storm — after a sudden plus "rain and strong winds", a singular noun. Pepper is a noun but does not bring rain.
4. pushed — past-tense verb; they moved the rug. Packed is already the better fit for gap 2, and you cannot reuse it.
5. hungry — adjective after was; missing is also an adjective but nothing in the story has disappeared.

Leftover teaching distractors: tent, castle, pepper, missing, ready. Each would fit some other Flyers sentence. That is why leftover box words feel convincing.

Now the title. Three teaching options:

• Emma's picnic in the rain
• Emma buys a new tent
• Emma's parents go to work

The best title is Emma's picnic in the rain. It covers the plan, the storm, and the wet ending. Emma buys a new tent uses a leftover box word that never happens in the story. Emma's parents go to work is a different day. The Handbook says the last question tests gist. A title that names one unused noun from the box is a detail trap, not gist.

Copying and time

Children must copy the option they choose correctly. Storm not strom. Ready not read. Pushed not push. If the box has a capital letter only because it starts a list, copy the word in the case the line needs (usually lower case inside a sentence). Do not add a or the unless it is part of the boxed word.

Part 3 should take about 6–7 minutes: one full read, five copies, one title. Together with Part 1 (about 6–7 minutes) and Part 2 (about 4–5 minutes), Parts 1–3 should use roughly 16–18 minutes, not the whole 40. Parts 4–7 still remain: a 10-mark factual cloze, a 7-mark story-sentence task, a 5-mark open cloze, and a 5-mark picture story. A child who crafts perfect Part 3 handwriting for 20 minutes is spending 6 marks as if they were the whole paper.

If time is short, still read the whole Part 3 story before filling gap 1. Guessing from a single line produces adjective/verb mix-ups, and the title question then has no gist to work from.

Title selection: gist, not a souvenir detail

Question 6 is not another gap. The three titles are often all "possible English". One names a side object (the waiter, the boat, the tent). One names a thing that never happens (Emma buys a new tent). One names the whole chain of events.

Ask three gist checks:

1. Who is the story about from start to finish? If a title names only a person who appears in one sentence, it is too narrow.
2. What problem and ending does the story have? Flyers narratives usually set a plan, interrupt it (storm, closed restaurant, missing cook), and show how people respond. The title should cover that shape.
3. Does this title stay true if I hide the most exciting noun in the box? If the title only works because storm or castle is a memorable word, it may be a detail magnet.

Do not choose a title because it uses a leftover box word. Leftover words are often the distractors for the gaps; they are also the distractors for the title.

Word-class mini-drills to reuse in class

Give children a Flyers sentence with a gap and ask only for the class, then for the word:

• "At six o'clock everyone went to the ………… to have dinner." → noun (place) → restaurant, not ready.
• "The dinner isn't ………… because there is no-one to cook." → adjective → ready, not restaurant.
• "They ………… the boat away from the rocks." → past verb → pushed, not push if the box offers past, and not pepper.
• "She put some ………… on the sandwiches." → after some, not a countable singular → pepper or another uncountable/plural, not storm.

These drills transfer to Part 4 (three-option grammar cloze) and Part 6 (open cloze), but Part 3 is where children first have to choose a form from a mixed box while they also follow a story.

Keep British spelling in copied answers when that is the form in the box (centre, favourite, pyjamas if those words appear). Do not "correct" a boxed American variant into British on the line; copy the option you choose. In teaching, stay with the British forms on the Flyers list unless the box itself shows the US spelling.