When you are teaching cause and effect you are teaching an important comprehension skill. However, with the Common Core standards, we need to work on deep comprehension of the story and actually try to get inside the author's mind to view how they decided to structure their work. Since we're talking about getting inside the author's mind and talking about story structure we really are setting the foundation for RL2.5 - Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. Since we did this lesson in April it only seems fitting that we start getting ready for 2nd grade by dipping our toes into those standards.
In this lesson I pose questions to my class and the students discuss both as partners and have a whole class discussion. This addresses standard RL1.1 - Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. As students discuss parts of the text, they will begin to understand that all the interactions of the characters are interrelated. It's the interactions between the characters that make the events happen. When we do this we address standard RL1.2 - Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. Finally, when we are retelling the story using key details we address standard RL1.3 - Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
After partnering students up (I have some grouping resources if you need them PartnerPickingCards, sorting sticks, and fun ways to group students,) and getting them situated I stated the objective and overview, I said, "Today is our last day of our story. We are going to be looking at both cause and effects today. We will record our information on our multi-flow maps and then answer our questions. Remember the whole point of being able to identify cause and effect relationships is to help us to understand the story better."
I went to slide 22 on the Smartboard lesson. I said, "We are going to have to identify what caused the teacher to make the class leave in a hurry. Listen carefully as I read." I reread page 21. I said, The text doesn't really say why they left in a hurry. See if you and your partner can figure this out. We may have to infer." Partners discussed and we had a great class conversation. We talked about how the farmer's wife screamed, the boa was eating the wash, and the farm was just crazy. We talked about what kind of behavior I expected from them when we went on a field trip. Then the students recorded the cause on their multi-flow map on page 13 of their packet.
Then I went to slide 23 on the Smartboard lesson. I said, "Now we will have to find the effect of what happened as a result of one of the pigs not getting off the bus. Listen carefully as I read." I read to page 24. We had both a partner and class discussion. Then the students recorded the effect on page 13 of their packet.
Finally, I went to slide 24 of the Smartboard lesson. I said, "This is the last one everyone. We need to determine what the effect is of the class leaving the boa constrictor." I read the rest of the book and made sure I showed the picture at the very end of the story. I said, "You and your partner will have to infer what happens as an effect of the class leaving the boa behind." We had both a partner and class discussion. The students said they needed to infer that the boa became the farmer's pet because that's what the last picture showed. The students recorded the effect on page 14 of their packet. I've included two videos here Discussing Our First Cause - Day 4 Jimmy's Boa, and Discussing and Recording Our Second Cause - Day 4 Jimmy's Boa, to give you a better idea of how this part of the lesson might look in your classroom.
I said, "O.K guys, you know the routine. You know that you need to use the multi-flow map as a tool. You also know that you need to restate the question as the first part of your answer and answer the questions in complete sentences. Let's read the questions together. Turn to page 14 in your packet.
1) Why did the teacher make the class leave the field trip in such a hurry?
2) What happened when one of the pigs didn't get off the bus?
3) What happened as a result of the class leaving the boa constrictor behind? How do you know this? "
I walked around, trying to help my students with skills that they needed help with. Some of my students are still having problems restating the questions. Others are still having problems with answering a question in a complete sentence. By walking around, I am able to help students have some individual time with me to work on skills that will help move them towards mastery. You can see my students answering their questions here Answering Questions - Day 4 Jimmy's Boa.
As in the previous day's lessons, all we did for the closure was to answer the questions from today's comprehension packet. I had a koosh ball and I asked the first question. I threw the ball to a student and they answered the question. I kept asking questions and students with the ball would throw it to another student. I think you have a pretty good idea from our closure videos from previous lessons what our closure looked like.