Cause and Effect

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Having a stomachache is what happens, or the effect, of eating too much.

Getting the goosebumps or shivers is the effect of being cold.

The effect is what has happened because of the cause. The effect is the what and the cause is the why.

The relationship between effects and their causes is not only important to literature, but for understanding our world.

Authors use cause and effect to create order in their stories and create the plot. The cause always happens first, though it might be written in a sentence as second.

For example, "I had to bake a new cake because I dropped the first one." The cause is, "I dropped the cake," and the effect is, "I had to make a new one."

• Can a cause have a multiple effects?

Yes! For example, the cause of a hurricane can have many effects.

There are times when cause and effects are clearly stated, but there are times when you have to "read between the lines" to see the relationship.

In the sentence, "There was ice in the parking lot, so Susie fell down," you have to infer that the ice was slippery and that is why Susie fell down.

There are clue words in a sentence that can help you find the causes and effects.

Look at the graphic below. Use each clue word in a sentence. For example, "Since the rain was coming down so hard, I was soaked head to toe."

To review what you just read, watch this Cause & Effect Podcast by Ms. Littlejohn:

Continue on to the Got It? section to go on a scavenger hunt!