English

Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

LESSON 17.1
Cause and Effect
Table of Contents
Introduction 1

Objectives 2

DepEd Competencies 2

Warm-Up 2

Learn about It 3
Cause-and-Effect Relationship 3
Signal Words in Cause-and-Effect Relationship 4

Key Points 5

Check Your Understanding 6

Let’s Step Up! 7

Bibliography 7
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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Lesson 17.1
Cause and Effect

Fig. 1. Identifying cause-and-effect relationships helps one understand a series of events

clearly.

Introduction
Have you ever wondered how things happen in nature? For example, what makes plants
grow? Or what happens when trees are cut? There are reasons behind these natural
phenomena. Similarly, real-life and fictional events show a chain of results of an action or a
thought. In this lesson, you will learn how to identify cause-and-effect relationships.

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Objectives
In this lesson, you should be able to do the following:
● Identify cause-and-effect relationships.
● State the effect of a given cause or the cause of a given effect.

DepEd Competencies
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to do the following:
● Identify cause-and–effect relationship (EN4LC-IVh-2.16).
● State the effects of a given cause (EN4OL-IVh-27).
● State the cause of a given effect (EN4OL-IVi-28).

Warm-Up

Why did I feel that way?

Procedure
1. Get a piece of paper and divide it into two.
2. On the left side, list down three emotions that you felt recently (happiness,
excitement, sadness, anger, fear, etc.).
3. On the right side, list down the reasons that caused those emotions. You may recall
what you did or who you talked to before you experienced those emotions.

Guide Questions
1. How did listing down the reasons for your emotions help you in any way?
2. Why do you think it is important to identify the cause of something?

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Learn about It

Vocabulary
essential
absolutely important
(adjective)

diligently
to do things steadily and energetically
(adverb)

thrive
to grow or develop
(verb)

Essential Question
Why is it important to identify cause-and-effect relationships?

Cause-and-Effect Relationship
Cause and effect show the relationship between one event to another. In this relationship,
an event occurs first and becomes the reason for another event. It is essential to identify
this kind of relationship in the texts we read, watch, or listen to so that we will fully
understand the connection between two things or events.

The cause happens first because it is the reason why something happened. It answers the
following questions:
● Why?
● Why did this happen?

On the other hand, the effect occurs after the cause or after something happens. It is the

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

result or outcome of an action or a thought. It answers the questions:

● What happened?
● What is the result?

The cause-and-effect relationship shows a chain of events. For example, in real life, your
actions result in something. If you study diligently for your classes, you will get good grades.
If you brush your teeth regularly, your teeth will not have cavities. If you take care of a plant,
it will thrive. Likewise, cause-and-effect relationships are also in fiction. For example,
Pinocchio tells lies, so his nose grows longer. Another example is when Cinderella was
rushing home before midnight. As a result, she left her glass shoe in the palace.

Signal Words in Cause-and-Effect Relationship

Since cause and effect show how one event affects another, signal words are used to
establish this relationship. These signal words can help you identify the causes and the
effects quickly and clearly.

Signal Words for CAUSE Signal Words for EFFECT

because so
since therefore
due to as a result
if then
when consequently

Examples:

Yuri ate ice cream because it was so hot.

In this example, the cause is it was so hot and the effect is Yuri ate ice cream. The signal word
because is used to introduce the cause of Yuri’s action of eating ice cream.

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Karla practiced everyday for her gymnastics competition. As a result, she won
a gold medal.

In this sentence, the cause is Karla practiced everyday for her gymnastics competition and the
effect is she won a gold medal. The signal word as a result is used to signal the effect of
Karla’s hard work.

Jake wants to know if plants will grow even without sunlight, so he conducted
an experiment about it.

In this example, the cause is Jake wants to know if plants will grow even without sunlight and
the effect is he conducted an experiment about it. The signal word so is used to signal the
effect of Jake’s curiosity.

Since Hazel and Hero want to buy a birthday gift for their grandma, they save
their allowance from their parents.

The cause in the sentence is Hazel and Hero want to buy a birthday gift for their grandma. The
effect is they save their allowance from their parents. The signal word is since which is used to
introduce the cause or the reason why they save their money.

Key Points

● Cause-and-effect relationships show how one event occurred because of another

event.
● Cause tells the reason, while effect shows the result of a thought or action.
● Because, since, due to, if, and when are signal words for the cause while so,
therefore, as a result, then, and consequently are signal words for the effect.

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Check Your Understanding

Match each cause on Column A with its effect on Column B.

Column A Column B

_____ 1. The phone rang. A. Ben could not get in their house.
_____ 2. Kevin’s clothes are dirty. B. Daniel asks for some from their
_____ 3. They ran out of salt. neighbor.
_____ 4. He lost his house key. C. He joined the school’s badminton club.
_____ 5. Laila tripped on a rock while D. He washed all of it.
playing. E. Her parents brought her to the
_____ 6. The thunderstorm is strong. hospital.
_____ 7. The baby has a fever. F. Jane answered it.
_____ 8. Marie is thirsty. G. She drinks plenty of cold water.
_____ 9. Timmy is good at playing H. She scraped her knees and hands.
badminton. I. The children are afraid of thunder and
_____ 10. Their group prepared well for lightning.
their project. J. Their teachers and classmates praised
their project.

Read the passage below. Highlight the cause with a yellow highlighter and the
effect with a blue highlighter. Underline the signal words.

Pearl was having a bad day. She woke up late because she forgot to set her alarm clock.
Since she did not wake up on time to prepare her things, she forgot to bring her art
materials. She forgot to bring her phone’s charger, so she could not charge it.

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Grade 4 • Unit 17: Cause and Effect

Pearl forgot to do many things due to her waking up late. She decided that this will not
happen again, thus, she set her alarm as soon as she got home. She does not want to
forget her things again, so she put them inside her bag that night.

Write five sentences that show cause-and-effect relationships.

1. ______________________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________________
4. ______________________________________________________________________________
5. ______________________________________________________________________________

Let’s Step Up!

Look for a news story in a newspaper or an online news outlet. Identify the causes
and effects mentioned in the report. Bring a copy of your news story in class and
discuss it with a partner.

Bibliography

Bressmer, Allison. 2022. “Cause and Effect: Definition, Meaning, and Examples.”
ProWritingAid. April 21, 2022. https://prowritingaid.com/cause-and-effect.

“Cause and Effect.” 2022. Reading Rockets. May 6, 2022.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/cause-and-effect.

Corbett, Melissa. 2020. “Cause and Effect | Award Winning Teaching Cause and Effect |

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Reading and Comprehension Strategies.” GrammarSongs by Melissa. July 13, 2020.

YouTube video, 9:53. https://youtu.be/mKBthdR8sYU.

Donnchaidh, Shane Mac. 2022. “5 Fun Ways to Teach Cause and Effect in Reading and
Writing.” Literacy Ideas. April 20, 2022.
https://literacyideas.com/teaching-cause-effect-in-english.

EasyTeaching. 2019. “Cause and Effect | Reading Strategies.” January 27, 2019. YouTube
video, 5:08. https://youtu.be/OnSEFSk5VgQ.