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How to Teach Cause and Effect Text Structure in 2025

Cause and Effect text structures are common throughout non-fiction books. By learning how to identify this structure, students can learn to identify and provide reasons for events. Read on to find ways the cause and effect text structure can be used in your classroom!

cause and effect text structure

What is Cause and Effect Text Structure?

Cause and effect text structures provide students with events and the directly related results of these events. It’s one of the 5 non-fiction text structures. Here, students will find reasons, evidence, and facts about a specific topic. There are also key words that help students to identify the Cause and Effect text structure. 

What is the Difference Between Cause And Effect and Problem and Solution Text Structures?

While problem and solution text structures show a problem on a specific person, thing, or community and the solution that resolved the issue, cause and effect shows what is happening due to an event. With cause and effect, there may not be a resolution, but rather facts to explain why something happened. 

What is an Example of a Cause and Effect Text?

A simple example of cause and effect is that a pencil broke, so the student could not write. A more complex example would be because of climate change, the wooly mammoth and other animals went extinct. Wondering what story would be an example? The story, A Bad Case of the Stripes, fits the Cause and Effect Text Structure! 

How Can You Tell the Passage is Organized Using the Cause and Effect Text Structure?

Key words, along with a clear effect, will help readers to identify the cause and effect text structure. Essentially, a text will explain what happened, and why it happened. 

5 Signal Words for Cause and Effect Text Structure

  1. As a result of…
  2. Because…
  3. Due to…
  4. This is why…
  5. Consequently…

Why Do Authors Use Cause and Effect Text Structure?

Authors use cause and effect to explain why something happened. This is important, as students can understand what happened and the direct results. It is also a foundational skill that can be applied throughout students’ lives! You pressed every button on an elevator? It will stop at each floor. You ate too much sugar? You will have a tummy ache.

5 Ideas for Teaching Cause and Effect Text Structure

Below is a list of ideas for how to teach cause and effect text structures.

1. Memory

Break apart clear causes and effects and write them on pieces of paper. Flip them upside down, and students will have to match the matching causes and effects! 

2. Trash

Provide 3 small bins labeled with three different effects (ie. natural disasters, civil rights’ laws, etc). Then, write different causes that support these effects on paper and have students try to shoot them into the correct bin! 

3. Organize

Use a graphic organizer when talking about cause and effect to help students visualize this concept. Be sure to connect the causes and effects with lines to promote understanding! 

4. Guess My Word

Pick a keyword from this text structure and underline the number of letters within the word. Have students guess letters, eventually identifying the keyword! 

5. Read Mentor Texts

Texts such as If You Give a Mouse a Cookie provide great discussion points of cause and effect! When presenting a mentor text, be sure to complete the graphic organizer with students to practice the skill. Also, practice metacognitive strategies while reading so students see good thinking in action! 

Resources for Teaching Text Structure

Check out our nonfiction reading comprehension and questions resource based on teaching text structure!

In closing, we hope you found this information about how to teach cause and effect text structures helpful. If you did, then you may also be interested in:

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