Make your cause-and-effect lesson plans easy to create with printables, worksheets, reading center, and comprehension activities, and more teaching resources designed to help students understand this important reading concept. Each resource in our cause-and-effect collection is curriculum aligned and has undergone a thorough review process by members of our teacher team to ensure it's ready to use in your classroom! Explore the entire list for editable options that can easily be differentiated for individual students and to meet your state standards!

Are you teaching this ELA concept for the first time this year, or just looking for some fresh ideas? Take a quick peek at this primer from our ELA teachers!

Why Do We Teach Cause and Effect?

Cause and effect is a vital part of the ELA curriculum that helps young readers begin to understand the relationships between events and characters in a text. It's the understanding of cause and effect that helps students make predictions about what will happen next in a story and why characters make certain decisions. It's also key for young readers to understand the motivations and actions of characters and to see how different events in the story are related to each other. When kids are reading, understanding cause and effect is what enables them to identify and analyze literary elements such as plot, setting, and characterization. Being able to identify cause-and-effect relationships within a text can also help readers to understand the themes and messages that the author is trying to convey.

Additional Benefits of Understanding Cause and Effect

You get it — cause and effect is an important thing to teach in your ELA classes. But learning the concept of cause and effect has benefits that extend far beyond ELA. Consider the impact on the environment: A child who knows that turning off the water while brushing their teeth will conserve water can make the connection that their actions have an impact on the environment and resources. They're building life skills. Here are a few other benefits of understanding cause and effect for kids to consider:

It helps children understand the consequences of their actions and to make better decisions.
It's part of how our students develop critical thinking skills and understand how different events are related to each other.
It helps children understand the relationships between different variables, which is essential for scientific inquiry and experimentation.

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Reading Comprehension Strategies Anchor Charts

Recognize Cause and Effect Poster