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

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)

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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Think of a story or text as a whole.​

​Why is it important to understand cause and effect 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