Cause and Effect Lesson 3

Cause and Effect Lesson 3

By Holli Ferullo

Understanding cause-and-effect relationships will

help you understand how and why events happen.​

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I can determine the cause and the effect that happens in a story.

Learning Target

Purpose:

Understanding cause and effect can help you see how events and ideas are related.

A cause is why an event happens.

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Example:

It started raining.​

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Cause

An effect is what happens because of a cause.

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Example:

I needed an umbrella. ​

Effect

The connection between two events

(a cause and an effect)

is an example of a cause-and-effect relationship.​

​​Relationship

​Vocabulary

Helpful Hint

Writers often use words such as because, if/then, since, so, therefore, and as a result to signal and explain a cause-and-effect relationship.​

Can you determine the cause and the effects?

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Cause and Effect Examples

Guiding Questions

• What happened? (The effect)

• Why did it happen? (The cause)​

• How are the events connected? (The ​cause and effect relationship)

Multiple Choice

In Antarctica, why do ice sheets build up over time?

• Because Antarctica gets very little snow or rain

• Because when it does snow, the snow doesn’t melt

• Because there are few plants to stop the ice from forming

• Because there aren’t enough people to break up the ice

Multiple Select

What are two other effects of the extreme cold in Antarctica?

• Ice shelves and icebergs form.

• The plants become tougher and stronger

• It snows all the time.

• Strong winds blow away any snow.

• People can’t stay there long.

Identify some of the effects from the cause in the story.

*Hint the cause is the extreme cold in Antartica. ​

Cause and Effect

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Open Ended

What is one reason why there may not be any sand in the Gobi Desert?

Hint look at paragraph 3

Think of a story or text as a whole.​

​Why is it important to understand cause and effect in a story?

Open Ended

Why is it important to understand cause and effect relationships in a story?

When you read a text try to identify the cause and effects within the story to help you identify how events and ideas are related to each other.

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Look for signal words like because, if/then, since, so, therefore,

and as a result as a signal.

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Lesson Closure