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Introduction
to the Online Cause and Effect Tutorial
Purpose of the Tutorial | Background Information | Directions | Teacher Support Materials
American History Idol is an online tutorial for learners in grades 4 and beyond, particularly those students who are having difficulty in reading and writing in the content areas. The purpose of the tutorial (called "activity" for the students) is to help students develop skills in identifying cause and effect relationships in text. Specifically, the tutorial is intended to teach students to use the following reading strategies for cause and effect: (a) identify signal words, (b) use a graphic organizer, and (c) create a slide show.
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Purpose of the Tutorial | Background Information | Directions | Teacher Support Materials
Purpose
of the Tutorials
In
this tutorial, students will learn strategies for reading and writing
expository information. In terms of reading, it will help students
understand cause and effect relationships. For writing, the goal
is to express cause and effect relationships. Specifically, they
will learn the following:
- What
is a cause-effect relationship?
- How
to identify or represent a cause and effect relationship in text
through use of several strategies including:
- Using
signal words to help determine which elements are cause and
which are effect
- Looking
at chronological relationships in causes and effects
- Invoking
common sense to evaluate cause-effect relationships
- Looking
for effects first since they are sometimes more obvious
- Using
a graphic organizer to organize and evaluate information presented
as causes and effects
While the online student activities are designed to be used independently, we are providing you with some additional teacher support materials. These can be used before, during, and after the tutorial and are meant to deepen students' understanding of cause and effect. We also include additional resources at the end of this section.
Also refer to the Literacy Matters section on cause and effect.
Background
Information
Using
cause and effect is a way to organize information—a type of
text structure. (For more information on text structures, visit
our section about text structures.)
People talk about cause and effect all the time, even if they do
not use those exact words. It is common to hear comments such as:
- The
rain caused a delay in the baseball game.
- We
were happy after our friend won the spelling bee.
Presenting
a cause and effect relationship is common in texts, and students
need to learn how to detect and evaluate such relationships. However,
as the related events become more complex or as the text becomes
more difficult to read, cause and effect relationships can be more
complicated or subtle, making them harder to understand. Consider
a sentence like the following:
An
intense sunlight streamed in through the window. In a short time,
the candle in the window had softened and fallen over, bending
like a willow in a gale.
The
cause and effect here is not explicit but is connected by the sequence
of events and the reader's knowledge of the world.
The
text below is complex and shows a number of cause and effect relationships
that might be helpful for students to untangle. It is important
to provide them with some strategies for identifying and understanding
the cause and effect relationships.
Baseball
was definitely segregated when Branch Rickey (1881-1965), a white
man, started his career in baseball. Branch Rickey devoted his
life to baseball, and he knew it in and out. He began as a player,
was a college coach, and was general manager for the St. Louis
Cardinals (1917-42), before he became president of the Brooklyn
Dodgers. Branch Rickey wanted to end segregation in baseball,
and he played a major role in doing just that. He felt very strongly
that segregation needed to be changed because it was morally wrong.
One experience that influenced him was when he was a coach in
college. He saw the pain that segregation caused one of his players.
His starting catcher was denied service at a hotel and restaurant
because he was black. Rickey found the catcher sitting outside
the hotel, rubbing his skin, and he said to Rickey, "if only
I could make it white." Branch Rickey worked hard to find
the right man to integrate the major leagues. He hired Jackie
Robinson, an African American, to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Students
with and without disabilities also need to learn how to write texts
that describe cause and effect relationships. For more information
on cause and effect relationships in text and recommendations of
websites, visit our overview
of compare and contrast.
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Directions
The
cause and effect tutorial is one of two available on our website. To foster motivation, these tutorials build on
the popularity of the competitive American Idol "reality"
shows. They present the student with the opportunity to promote
a less well-known figure in American History to "American History
Idol" status. In the cause and effect tutorial, "American
History Idol #2: Cause and Effect," the student promotes Thurgood
Marshall.
The
student has to complete several tasks in this tutorial:
- Read
several short paragraphs describing Thurgood Marshall's life.
- After
each paragraph, identify some information presented in cause and
effect relationships.
- Drag
that information to a graphic organizer.
- When
all the above is completed, create a short multimedia presentation
showing a major accomplishment (an effect) in Marshall's life
and some events (causes) leading to that major accomplishment
as a means of promoting him as an "American History Idol."
The
tutorials available on Literacy Matters are designed for students
with diverse learning needs, including those who may struggle with
reading and writing. All the reading and other activities required
in the tutorial are supported by readback of the text and other
instructional support (i.e., scaffolding) from a narrator. The tutorials
are self-directing and self-paced. Essentially all that students
need to do is launch a tutorial (called an "activity"
for the students) and follow the cues.
Depending
on the level of your students, they can work alone or in pairs.
You may want to select only certain students to engage in a tutorial.
Or, all the students can complete it in a computer lab or as homework.
It is important for you to go through the tutorials yourself to
determine how to use them most effectively with your students. The
tutorial may take up to 45 minutes to complete. Students are offered
the option of stopping and saving their work in several places so
that they can come back to it another time.
The
tutorial is introduced by one or more context-setting activity(s)
and followed by additional follow-up activities. We have provided
activities that are related to text structure generally and also
specifically to understanding comparisons in reading and writing.
Feel free to use any or all of them, depending on your student(s).
After
your students try out this American
History Idol tutorial
on cause and effect, you may want to send them to additional compare and contrast activities.
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Teacher
Support Materials
Before, During, and After the Tutorial, plus additional Resources
Before Using the Tutorial
- Provide students with background information about Thurgood Marshall's life. The following websites are good resources. For a brief biography of Thurgood Marshall, go to: Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court Justice at
chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm
- For a link that explains the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision, go to Brown Vs. Board of Education at:
www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html
- Create a chart of words and phrases that can signal cause and effect relationships (e.g., because, therefore, so that, cause, reason, effect, thus, consequently, since, as a result, and if.then). Additional words can be found at: www.mrmulgrew.com/writing_signal_words_page.htm. Discuss these words/phases with your students.
- Have students circle the cause and effect signal words and phrases they can find in a familiar passage. A newspaper article can be a good source of these words.
- Demonstrate a simple graphic organizer for cause and effect (These will be repeated in the tutorial). Show students an example of one using a situation from their everyday life. Example: If they do not get up on time, what are the effects? How do these turn into causes with new effects? See some examples of different cause/effect graphic organizers at: education.bjbarton.com/Graphic_Organizers.html
#CAUSE_&_EFFECT_Graphic_ORGANIZERS and at: www.somers.k12.ny.us/intranet/skills/organizing/cause/cause.html
- Have students create an organizer of their own life to map key events, showing how one event might have caused another.
- Show students graphic organizers to illustrate the three kinds of cause and effect relationships that will be used in the tutorial:
- One cause to one effect
- Two causes to one effect
- One cause to two effects
While Using the Tutorial
- To help students read the text online, divide students into heterogeneous groups of two or three. Have them help each other with the mechanics of the game, finding cause and effect phrases and dragging them into the graphic organizer. In the last paragraph, have them discuss an alternate map that could work with this passage.
- To help students create the slide presentation, have them work independently to choose what they identify as the most important effect (or outcome) of Thurgood Marshall's life. Then have students choose three causes that led to their chosen effect. Before publishing, have a peer offer comments on the product.
After Using the Tutorial
- Give each student a chance to demonstrate his/her slide shows in a round robin fashion. This can be done in a computer lab or in the classroom. Discuss the differences among the students' work.
- Have students send an email to parents, relatives and friends telling them about the slide show and sending them the URL (online address) to see the show.
- Show them other styles of graphic organizers for cause and effect. You can find other examples of kinds of cause and effect graphic organizers (as listed below) at the following website: education.bjbarton.com/Graphic_Organizers.html
#CAUSE_&_EFFECT_Graphic_ORGANIZERS
- Cause/Effect T-Chart
- Causes & Consequences for an Effect
- Cause & Effect Chain
- Cause & Effect Chain2
- Cause & Effect Cycle
- Relationship
- Factors that Effect
- Multiple Causes for an Effect
- What Effects Can You Find?
- Cause & Effect Chart
- Cause & Effect Fishbone Chart
- Complete one or more of the activities below using these other graphic organizers.
- Divide the class into three groups. See graphic organizers at the following site: Cause and Effect Graphic Organizers at: education.bjbarton.com/Graphic_Organizers.html
#CAUSE_&_EFFECT_Graphic_ORGANIZERS. Give students a simple cause and effect text. Have each group map the text using a different cause and effect organizer.
- Have the students choose someone they know. Have them use a graphic organizer to map out cause and effect relationships showing why that person is important.
- Have the students create a cause and effect graphic organizer to show relationships in their own life. Then have them discuss one cause or one effect to see what could or might have happened if events in their life had been different? Have them re-map their lives reflecting this change of events.
- Take advantage of existing web-based activities such as the following:
- Just BeCause.Debating Energy Issues at www.earth.uni.edu/EECP/mid/mod4_la.html. This is an interdisciplinary language arts activity focusing on energy consumption using the cause-effect text structure.
- Bedford County's website using the folk tale "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears" and activities linked around cause and effect at www.bedfordk12tn.com/4crread.htm
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Resources
Cause and Effect Graphic Organizers
Literacy Matters Cause and Effect Web Sites
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