"Luckiest Time of All" Cause and Effect Activity

The Luckiest Time of All Cause and Effect

Activity Overview

Most short stories contain some form of cause and effect. One thing happens, and it causes something else to happen in response. It can be something as simple as “the old woman offered the girl a perfect, red, shiny apple, so she ate it.” It could also be something more complicated, like “the girl had endured so much pain at the hands of her evil step-mother that she had a hard time trusting adults, even when she was one.”

"The Luckiest Time of All" contains a number of things one could argue changed Elzie’s life. She decided to go to the Silas Green Show. She stopped to watch the dancing dog. She hurled her lucky pebble at the dancing dog. All of these choices had consequences. Students should find an event in the story that caused something else to happen. Using a T-Chart, they should label the left side “Cause” and the right side “Effect”. Illustrating both the cause and its effect, students should use the description bars to detail how the first event put the second in motion.

Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-8

Difficulty Level 1 (Introducing / Reinforcing)

Type of Assignment Individual, Partner, or Group

Type of Activity: Cause and Effect within Plot

Common Core Standards

[ELA-Literacy/RL/7/3] Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)
[ELA-Literacy/RL/8/3] Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision

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Template and Class Instructions

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Student Instructions

Create a storyboard that shows cause and effect relationships in "Luckiest Time of All". Each cause and effect pair will be shown in the same row.

On the left side of the T-Chart, illustrate events that show cause (why).
On the right side of the T-Chart, illustrate events that are the direct effect of that cause.
Write a description below each cause.
In the description under each effect, show how the cause and effect are related.

Cause and Effect

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Rubric

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Cause and Effect T-Chart

Create a T-Chart storyboard that shows cause and effect relationships in the story. Each cause and effect pair will be shown in the same row.

	Proficient	Emerging	Beginning
Cause	All events on the left side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as causes. These events are why something else happened.	Most events on the left side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as causes or why something else happened.	Few or no events on the left side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as causes or why something else happened.
Effect	All events on the right side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as effects. These events are direct results of something else.	Most events on the right side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as effects or direct results of something else.	Few or no events on the right side of the T-Chart are correctly identified as effects or direct results of something else.
Images	Images clearly show the events in the story that have been identified as causes and effects.	Images show events from the story, but not all images match the cause and effect events.	Images do not represent the story or are missing.
Cause and Effect Relationship	All rows correctly show cause events in the story having a direct effect on the effect events.	Most rows correctly show cause events in the story having a direct effect on the effect events.	Few or no rows correctly show cause events in the story having a direct effect on the effect events.