Home > Florida Then & Now > Cause and Effect Tree Strategy	Site Map

Cause and Effect Tree

This strategy helps students identify cause and effect relationships. It is important to stress that sometimes one cause may have several effects, or several causes may lead to one effect. There is not always a one-to-one relationship in cause and effect.

1. The students read an informational or literary text.

2. The students brainstorm cause and effect relationships found in the text.

3. The teacher introduces a visual aid of a tree with many branches either on the board or chart paper, as well as on worksheets for each student.
   
   
4. The students write the cause on the trunk of the tree.
   
   
5. On each branch the students write the effects of the cause. If there is more than one cause and effect relationship in the text, use another tree.
   
   
6. The students share their cause and effect trees and/or extend them into paragraph form.