Getting students to grasp the concept of cause and effect can be tricky. They often get hung up on which is the cause and which is the effect, but what’s really most important when teaching cause and effect is that students are learning how sentences are related to each other and how one thing (event) can impact another.
That’s why I created these cause and effect sentence sort activities! (I’ll tell you how to get a free one at the end of this post.)🎁
The idea behind this activity is for students to read a paragraph about a topic and then identify causes and effects from within this paragraph.
When they are given the sentences mixed up and out of order, they aren’t simply matching, but rather they are looking for connections between the individual sentences.
- Is this sentence related to this one?
- What sentence further explained this one?
- What details were related?
Teachers love the included response sheet so students can justify their answers. This gives them the chance to write to explain one of their cause and effect pairs. The file also includes ideas for differentiation and extension for older students.
Another Way You Can Use the Same Cause and Effect Sort Activity: Color Coding
Print the paragraph out on plain white paper and have students color code the cause and effect sentences with markers. You can have them highlight keywords too.
Here’s an example:
✏️Want to try a cause and effect sort for free? Sign up and I’ll email you one!🎁
Want a year of cause & effect sorts? Check out the BRAND NEW MEGA Bundle!👇
You might also want to read about teaching main idea and details with sorts:
