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4  RECORD CAUSES AND EFFECTS
Have students use a cause-effect chart to record the causes and effects in the selection.
Graphic Organizer 19
Graphic Organizer 19
1  DEMONSTRATE CAUSE AND EFFECT
Remind students that a cause is why something happened and an effect is what happens. Demonstrate by turning out the lights. Ask:
What is the effect? (It is dark.)
What is the cause? (You turned off the lights.)
2  IDENTIFY CAUSE AND EFFECT
Write this sentence on the board: Because it is raining, I took my umbrella to school. Explain that sometimes a sentence has a clue word such as because, so, or since that signals a cause-and-effect relationship. Have volunteers circle the cause (it is raining) and the effect (I took my umbrella) and underline the clue word (because).
3  APPLY TO A SELECTION
Read with students a story that has causes and effects. Several causes can lead to one effect: Sunshine and water make flowers grow. One cause can lead to several effects: Leaving a bike in the hallway can cause someone to trip and get hurt.
Cause and Effect
Students who are able to connect what happens in a selection to the reason why it happens can better understand what they read. In fiction, this skill will help them figure out why characters do what they do. In nonfiction, it will give them a better grasp of factual information. Use the following routine to teach cause and effect.
Keene, Ellin Oliver, and Susan Zimmermann. Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop. Heinemann, 1997, p. 154.1992, p. 238.
Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann,
Mosaic of Thought
"Inference is a mosaic, a dazzling constellation of thinking processes, but the tiles available to form each mosaic are limited, circumscribed. There must be a fusion of words on a page—and constraints of meaning they impose—and the experience and knowledge of the reader."
FOCUS ON RESEARCH
Research on Cause and Effect