Chain of Events / Cause and Effects
A Chain of Events is used
to indicate the stages of an event or series of events, the actions of
person or fictional character, or the steps in a procedure.
In developing a Chain of Events, list:
What is the first event or step?
If you are dealing with a person or character, ask what did he or she do?
Why did the character or person make that decision?
What are the next events or steps? What were the results of the character's
decision?
How did the other character or people react?
How does one event lead to one another?
What is the final outcome?
In a history class, a chain
of events might be useful for illustrating the events which divided the
North and South and led
to the American Civil War. Since we are used to reading from left to right,
the chain might move from left to right.
In a chemistry class, students might be asked to develop a
chain of events demonstrate the steps in mixing chemical compounds.
This should be good practice before an experiment and afterwards could
be used as review or evaluation.
A simple chain of events might
be constructed to show the events in a novel, short story, movie, or play.
To demonstrate more complex connections, it might be necessary to move to
a spider map or cluster map. In some cases, students might benefit from
starting with fairly simple organizers and then moving to more complex examples
as they gain a clearer understanding of the strategy.
Students who do not have much
experience analyzing literature may benefit from using a chain of events or
cause and effect map. If they are able to identify the cause and effect relationships
in a short story, novel , film, or play, they should have a clear understanding
of what actually happened, why events occurred, and why characters acted
as they did. Having students analyze the causes of events prompts them to
look carefully at the relationships between characters' actions, the
resulting reactions of other characters, and the consequences of decisions
characters make.
The following map is a combination chain of events and cluster map. It
begins with the steps involved in studying a poem and them branches off for
related details.
Source: Sue Lozinski
<http://www.lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/Inspiration/poetry.htm>
Sample Lesson Plan using a
Cause and Effect Organizer
In previous lessuns, students have learned about the social, political,
and economic effects of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the spread
of the Germanic tribes across Europe. Long distance trade has dwindled,
and the population is almsot entirely rural and agrarian. With an increase
in population in the period between approximately 1000 A.D. and 1340 A.D.
(prior to the Black Death) agriculture expanded, and there was an expansion
of trade. Market villages grew into towns along trade routes, and there was
an increased pool of laborers available.
Remind students that some cities began as market villages and grew to become
thriving commercial centers. The following questions might be helpful
to prompt students in developing theis cause and effect organizers:
Why did peasants and serfs move to villages and cities?
What are some problems that developed when cities got overcrowded?
How did the expansion of trade routes effect cities?
How did the construction
of castles effect cities?
How did the
growth of universities effect cities?
What happen when craftsmen moved
to cities?
What advantages did people have living in cities? What disadvantages?
What problems developed with the increase in population?
What problems developed
because there was little or no urban planning?
How did the relationship between nobles and commoners change in growing
commercial centers?
Remind students that when we study patterns of growth we may need to understand
causes and effects. Remind
students that events often have more than one cause and more than one effect.
Have students develop a cause
and effect map demonstrating their understanding of the causes and effects
of increased trade and the revival of medieval cities, including information
on agricultural expansion, trade guilds, crime, pollution, poverty, disease,
and the development of a middle class.
Assessment:
Students will develop their maps individually. After checking the maps
to determine that they include a sufficient amount of detail to demonstrate
the reasons for increased trade and urban growth, the maps will be returned.
The class will then compare example to see which details students chose
to include. They will explain why those details are relevant. The class
will then create a collective map including the details they have in common
and any that individual students can justify.
Two-Column Notes for Causes and Effect
This strategy helps students identify and/or explain cause and effect relationships
found in both informational and literary texts by using a graphic organizer.
The teacher introduces the graphic organizer.
The students read the assigned text.
The students complete the two-column notes using their knowledge of the
story.
The students list causes on the left-hand side of the chart.
The students identify the effects of the listed causes on the right-hand
side of the chart.
The students share their cause and effect notes with the class.
Source: Santa, C. (1993). Pegasus: Teacher implementation guide for grade
4. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Using a Cause and Effects graphic to generate an essay.
<
http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~jsuther/cause-effect.html
>
How to create a Cause and Effect outline
<
http://www.efl.arts.gla.ac.uk/CampusOnly/essays/19web.htm
>