This Lesson CAUSES an EFFECT of Learning!

Contributor: Jennifer Blanchard. Lesson ID: 13511

Cause and effect. Have you heard these two words used together before? What exactly do they mean? Why are they important when reading? This lesson answers all these questions and more!

categories

Comprehension, English / Language Arts

subject
Reading
learning style
Visual
personality style
Otter
Grade Level
Intermediate (3-5)
Lesson Type
Quick Query

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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Watch THE AMAZING TRIPLE SPIRAL (15,000DOMINOES) from Hevesh5:

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  • Can you believe there are 15,000 dominoes in that video?
  • Can you believe it took 25 hours of work to set that all up?

Keep reading to see what this has to do with reading!

  • What happened in the domino video above?

The girl pushed one domino, and that set off 14,999 other dominoes to fall! Just one second impacted her 25 hours of work!

That is an example of a very extreme cause-and-effect relationship!

dominoes falling

A cause-and-effect relationship is when one action leads to something else happening. The cause happens first, and the effect comes next. The cause leads to the effect.

The cause is WHY something happened, and the effect is WHAT happened.

Watch Cause and Effect | English For Kids Mind blooming:

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  • Did you hear the speaker say how even though the cause comes before the effect, sometimes in writing, the effect is written first?

That's why we really have to pay attention to know which event is the cause and which is the effect. Also, there can be multiple causes or multiple effects.

cause effect

An example of a cause-and-effect relationship could be that my alarm clock went off, so I woke up.

  • What happened first?

My alarm clock went off.

  • What happened next?

I woke up.

I woke up because my alarm clock went off. My alarm clock going off is the cause that made the effect happen: I woke up.

Many times when you're reading, the example isn't that clear. There might be lots of other text between the cause and effect, so you really need to think closely about what the cause-and-effect relationship is.

For some other examples, watch Cause and Effects from Reading Street:

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Keep going in the Got It? section to see what comes next!

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