In this activity students will identify the cause and effect of events in the text. At the beginning of the novel, Jeffrey is sent to live with his aunt and uncle who do not get along. He is so disturbed by this, that during a school play, he stands on the stage yelling, “TALK!” and then runs away.
Another cause and effect relationship begins when Mars Bar and his friends surround Maniac, ready to beat him up. Amanda Beale steps in, rescues him and takes him to her house. Shortly after his rescue, Maniac realizes the trouble he is causing the Beales when “FISHBELLY” is sprayed on their house. He doesn’t want to be a burden on the family, so he runs away to the West End.
The text structure of Maniac Magee is cause and effect; therefore an entire cause and effect chain can be created to show how the story progresses.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that shows cause and effect relationships in Maniac Magee. Each cause and effect pair will be shown in the same row.
(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric.)
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. |