Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) Maze passages are timed measures that measure reading comprehension. They are better predictors of future reading performance than CBM oral reading fluency probes for students in grades 4 and higher (Hosp, Hosp & Howell, 2007). Students read Maze passages silently during assessment, so Maze can be administered to a whole class at one time. Passages used for Maze should be at least 300 words in length. The first sentence of the Maze passage is left intact. In the text following the first sentence, every seventh word from the passage is selected to be incorporated into a response item that consists of the original word plus two foils (words that would not make sense if substituted in the passage in place of the original, correct word). These three choices are randomly arranged and inserted back into the text. During a timed Maze administration, the reader silently reads the Maze passage; whenever he or she encounters a response item, the reader circles the word from the three choices that best restores the meaning of that segment of the passage. The reader continues until time expires. A good description of Maze passages and administration can be found in the manual Using CBM for Progress-Monitoring in Reading (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2007).
Directions: This Maze Passage Generator largely automates the work of creating a Maze passage with user-entered content.
To get started, type or paste the passage that you would like to convert in the Passage box below. You can also optionally type in the Author and/or Title of the passage. NOTE: To compute readability, click on the COMPUTE button below under ‘Readability Estimates’.
Selecting Foils for the Maze Passage. The application allows you three choices in selecting foils to be included in the Maze responses: