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00:05

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

What exactly is “cause and effect”?

00:15

And what might…cause us to care about it?

00:18

Well, let’s start by defining the terms and go from there… [Girl looking confused]

00:20

A cause is an event or action that makes another event take place. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

00:24

It’s the “why” something happens.

00:26

For example, Jane pushed Jack on the playground. [Jack falls over]

00:29

Way to go, Jane.

00:30

An effect is something that happens because something else happened first. [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

00:34

It’s the “what happened” part.

00:36

In the case of our good friends Jack and Jane…it would be the fact that Jack fell down and [Jack's knee is bleeding]

00:40

scraped his knee.

00:41

He fell, which is “what happened” because of what Jane did—she pushed him.

00:45

That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

00:48

When you’re reading, it’s important to think about the “why” and the “what [Jack in the principal's office]

00:51

happened because of the why”.

00:52

Okay, that’s a wordy way of putting it, but you catch our drift.

00:55

It’s especially important to think about these things when it comes to characters—why

00:59

they did something, and the consequences of their actions. [Jane sees the principal in the corridor]

01:01

Would a character have done something differently to get a different result?

01:05

Did she know what was going to happen when she acted?

01:07

Or was the character too busy mulling over “why”s and “what”s to pay attention? [Jane walks into a rock]

01:12

Thinking about cause and effect really helps us better understand character perspective…

01:15

… which is an important part of reading comprehension.

01:17

We don’t just want to know that Mr. Wonka handed over the keys to his chocolate factory… [Boy looks happy holding the key]

01:21

…we want to understand what could possibly have possessed him to voluntarily give up [Mr. Wonka at the doctors]

01:25

that much chocolate…

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