This section focuses on identifying and analyzing historical events that are related by cause and effect. The material presented is designed to help you meet the following objective. 

The concept of cause and effect is “common to multiple disciplines as well as central to the social studies” (Social Studies, 2012, par. 2). Recognizing patterns of cause and effect is an important analytical skill that allows historians to explain why things happened the way they did in the past. It’s also a strategy that can make it possible to predict what may happen in the future. Understanding how events, conditions, and people interact is crucial to interpreting historical facts, while breaking these facts down into causes and their ultimate effects can help make sense of complex historical events.

Understanding cause and effect requires a good grasp of the concept of chronology. “The underlying principle is one adapted from physics: for every action there is an equivalent reaction; every cause results in an effect. In historical terms, every event has a cause, and is itself the cause of subsequent events, which may therefore be considered its effect(s), or consequences” (Cause, n.d., par. 1). A possible problem with cause and effect is its potential to oversimplify the complexity of events, but it is important to introduce the concept to kindergarten and elementary grades students.

Learning Activity

Watch Cause and Effect Under the Deep Blue Sea, a short video for 4th graders on learning to recognize cause and effect in informational text. The video explains cause and effect and discusses text structures and other clues pointing to cause and effect.

https://www.floridastudents.org/PreviewResource/StudentResource/121816