I actually had someone tell me early readers didn’t need to know about cause and effect because “it was too hard to bring it to their level.” I, respectfully, disagree. It’s not necessarily about the skill, it’s about the approach.
Cause and Effect Rain and Umbrellas…the easiest example
Kids know why they use umbrellas…it’s either used in rain or in the bright sun. Provide students with picture cards and ask them to tell the relationship between the pictures.
Lead them to use signal words “because” and “so.” Let them discover the cause and effect BEFORE you call it such. Using a pocket chart or a document camera, continue to show students sets of 2 pictures and ask the students to tell you the relationship between the two.
Once you establish the relationship between pictures THEN name the relationship.
Make an cause and effect Anchor Chart
Once they understand the relationship between the pictures, ask them to help you make an anchor chart.
(You know I believe in Anchor Charts for everything!)
They should help you create the poster and decide what the chart should include (with your guidance).
The anchor chart can be recreated for a reading interactive notebook or an independent center.
Using velcro(R) dots on the pictures can help make the anchor chart interactive.
cause and effect: Let them do it!
Let them do it OVER and OVER and OVER.
I try to explain to teachers doing an introduction lesson and making an anchor chart is not all the explicit instruction students need.
They need to do it over and over in a controlled setting BEFORE they can do it independently.
Most teachers in our area are held to the “I do. We do. You do.” cycle of instruction.
BUT the “We do.” can’t be about the anchor chart.
Students must interact with a lesson or strategy or skill many, many times before they are expected to perform that skill. They need to find partners in the room with pictures that can create a cause and effect relationship. They need to practice explaining the relationship orally BEFORE they can
explain it writing. They need to practice explaining it in writing BEFORE it’s expected to be graded. We tend to be in such a rush to move from skill to skill or lesson to lesson, we aren’t giving our students, especially our earliest learners a chance at success.
However, after lots of practice with direct instruction and support, students can use what they know about the relationships to create independent sentences. They can choose the pictures for cause and effect, then choose one pair to write a complete sentence with a signal word.
See, it’s not hard, it’s just strategic!
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I also have Reading Comprehension BIG BUNDLE. This set is included with 13 other sets.
