Third Grade · Reading · week 16

Cause/effect structure

Recognize cause/effect text structure and use signal words to connect why something happened to what happened.

A CAUSE is why something happens. An EFFECT is what happens as a result. Signal words like because, so, as a result, and therefore connect a cause to its effect. Finding these words helps you understand WHY events in a passage happen.

Passage: Heavy rain fell for three days straight. As a result, the river rose higher than its banks. Because the water had nowhere else to go, it flooded the nearby fields. Farmers therefore had to move their animals to higher ground.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Ask "why did that happen?" after almost any event in a story or nonfiction passage this week.
  • Build a simple chain together: cause leads to effect, which becomes a new cause, which leads to the next effect.
  • Point out that one cause can have more than one effect, and one effect can have more than one cause.
  • Practice with everyday cause and effect: "Because it is raining, so we ..." -- let your child finish the sentence.
Talk about it:
  • What is the difference between a cause and an effect?
  • Name a signal word that points to an effect.
  • What is a real cause and effect from your own day today?

Mastery looks like: They identify a cause and its matching effect in a passage and point to the signal word connecting them.

Common stumbles: Mixing up which event is the cause and which is the effect; missing quieter signal words like "therefore" that connect ideas across sentences.

See it visually

Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.

Cause & EffectMatch what happened to why it happened.try →Text StructureSpot how a text is built: sequence, cause/effect, compare, problem/solution.try →Transition WordsLink ideas with first, however, therefore, and finally.try →
Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
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