Lesson length30 min 45 min 60 min

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English lesson plan · 4th grade (Year 5 in England) · 30 minutes

Text structure (cause–effect, compare, problem–solution)

Reading Comprehension

CCSS RI.4.5CCSS RI.5.5England: Y5/6 ReadingEngland: KS2 SATs Reading

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Text structure (cause–effect, compare, problem–solution).

I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
I can explain each step and say why it works.
I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Order of events; Main idea and supporting details

Leads to: Analysing structure; Plot stages: exposition to resolution; Foreshadowing, flashback, cliffhanger and red herring

Materials: A short text or extract (one copy each), Highlighters, Question cards, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 4 min

Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Order of events; Main idea and supporting details). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

First, Pia put on her socks. Next, she put on her shoes. Then she ran outside. What did Pia do last? (ran outside / put on her socks / put on her shoes / went to bed) → ran outsidePrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.
The alarm rang. Amy got up and brushed her teeth. After that, she ate breakfast. What did Amy do right after she got up? (brushed her teeth / ate breakfast / went to bed / set the alarm) → brushed her teethPrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.
Lee dug a hole. He put in a seed. Then he covered it with soil and gave it water. What did Lee do before he put in the seed? (dug a hole / picked a flower / covered it with soil / gave it water) → dug a holePrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.

Hook · 3 min

Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
Share the objective: Text structure (cause–effect, compare, problem–solution). Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 7 min

Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
Example: The desert is hot and dry. Sand dunes stretch for miles, cacti stand tall, and lizards dart between the rocks. How is this text organised?
Step 1: Text structure is how a writer organises ideas.
Step 2: So the answer is: description
Answer: description
Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 6 min

Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

Because the river flooded, many roads were closed. As a result, the school buses could not run, so school was cancelled. How is this text organised? (description / cause and effect / problem and solution / compare and contrast) → cause and effectPrompt: How is the information organised?
First, the egg hatches into a caterpillar. Next, the caterpillar eats and grows. Then it forms a chrysalis. Finally, a butterfly emerges. How is this text organised? (chronological order (sequence) / compare and contrast / problem and solution / cause and effect) → chronological order (sequence)Prompt: How is the information organised?

You do: independent practice · 7 min

Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 3 min

Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

Watch out for

Answering from memory or opinion instead of evidence in the text.
Copying a long quote without explaining what it shows.

Support and stretch

Support

Review first: Order of events.
Use concrete materials: a short text or extract (one copy each).
Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

Move on to: Analysing structure; Plot stages: exposition to resolution; Foreshadowing, flashback, cliffhanger and red herring.
Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-4.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Text structure (cause–effect, compare, problem–solution)

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How to Build a Junk Robot

Do you have a pile of empty boxes and bottle tops? Instead of throwing them away, turn them into a robot! This project takes about an hour. You will need: one cereal box, one smaller box (such as a toothpaste box), four cardboard tubes, bottle tops, glue, scissors and some tape. Step 1: Ask an adult to help you cut a hole in the top of the cereal box. This will be the robot's body. Step 2: Glue the smaller box on top of the body to make the head. Hold it in place for a minute while the glue sets. Step 3: Tape two cardboard tubes to the sides of the body for arms and two to the bottom for legs. Step 4: Glue bottle tops onto the head for eyes and onto the body for buttons and dials. Step 5: Leave your robot to dry overnight before you play with it. Top tip: Give your robot a name and write it on a label. Robots with names are much more fun!

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Question 1
Read "How to Build a Junk Robot". Why are the steps numbered?
- A. to show how many robots to make
- B. so they are followed in the right order
- C. to make the text longer
- D. to show which step is most fun

The Attic

The attic door had been painted shut for as long as Daniel could remember. His mother said there was nothing up there but dust and old suitcases. So when the decorators scraped away the paint on the first Saturday of the summer holidays, Daniel was the first one up the narrow stairs. The air was thick and warm and smelt of mothballs. Thin blades of light slid through gaps in the roof tiles and lay across the floorboards like fallen swords. In the far corner, beneath a sheet greyed with age, something waited. Daniel crossed the room slowly. Each board groaned beneath him as if complaining about being woken. He reached out, hesitated, then pulled the sheet away in one quick movement. It was a desk – small, battered, and covered in carvings. Initials. Dates. A crooked drawing of a sailing boat. And there, in the corner, carved more deeply than all the rest, were three letters he knew better than his own name: D.A.M. Daniel Adebayo Mensah. His grandfather. The grandfather who had died two years before Daniel was born, and whom his mother never spoke about. He ran his fingers over the letters. Downstairs, someone switched on a radio, and a burst of music floated up through the floor. Daniel did not move. For the first time, the silence in the attic did not feel empty. It felt like someone waiting to tell him a story.

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Question 2
Read "The Attic". Why does the writer reveal the initials D.A.M. before explaining who they belong to?
- A. to create a moment of suspense before the discovery
- B. to show Daniel cannot read
- C. to change the setting
- D. because the reader already knows

How to Build a Junk Robot

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Question 3
Read "How to Build a Junk Robot". What should you do just after gluing on the head?
- A. Give it a name.
- B. Hold it in place for a minute.
- C. Leave it to dry overnight.
- D. Cut a hole in the box.

The Clever Octopus

If you wanted to design an intelligent animal from scratch, you probably would not start with a creature that has no bones, three hearts and blue blood. Yet the octopus is one of the most remarkable problem-solvers in the animal kingdom. In laboratories, octopuses have learned to unscrew jar lids to reach crabs inside. Some have escaped from their tanks at night, crept across the floor to a neighbouring tank to eat the fish, and then returned home before morning. In the wild, veined octopuses have been filmed collecting coconut shells, carrying them across the seabed and assembling them into a portable shelter – one of the few known examples of tool use by an invertebrate. What makes this intelligence so surprising is how different the octopus brain is from ours. About two-thirds of its roughly 500 million nerve cells are not in its head at all but in its eight arms. Each arm can taste, touch and even make simple decisions on its own. Scientists are still debating what it might feel like to be an animal whose thinking is spread throughout its body. The octopus's cleverness may be linked to its lifestyle. Without a shell for protection, it must outwit predators by hiding, changing colour in a fraction of a second, or squeezing through gaps no bigger than its beak. Survival depends on flexible thinking. Strangely, most octopuses live only one or two years. They have no parents to teach them and usually die soon after laying eggs. Every skill they show, they must largely work out for themselves.

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Question 4
Read "The Clever Octopus". What is the relationship between paragraph 4 and the rest of the text?
- A. It suggests a cause for the octopus's intelligence.
- B. It tells a story about a single octopus.
- C. It introduces a counterargument.
- D. It describes how to keep an octopus.

The Lemonade Stand

Marcus wanted a new bike helmet, but it cost twenty dollars. He had only five. "Why not set up a lemonade stand?" suggested his grandmother. She helped him squeeze a big bowl of lemons and stir in sugar and cold water. Marcus painted a sign that said LEMONADE – 50 CENTS. On Saturday morning, Marcus put his table at the end of the driveway. For the first hour, nobody came. Cars zoomed past. Marcus began to think it was a silly idea. Then he noticed that people were walking to the park across the road for a football match. He picked up his sign and moved the table right next to the park gate. Within ten minutes, a line had formed. By lunchtime, the jug was empty. Marcus counted his coins. He had earned exactly fifteen dollars. With the five he already had, it was enough. "You did it!" said Grandma. "We did it," said Marcus. "And next time, I'll think about where the customers are before I start."

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Question 5
Read "The Lemonade Stand". What problem did Marcus have during the first hour?
- A. Nobody came to buy lemonade.
- B. It started to rain.
- C. He lost his money.
- D. The lemonade was too sour.

Inside a Volcano

Deep beneath our feet, the Earth is extremely hot – hot enough to melt rock. This melted rock is called magma. Because magma is lighter than the solid rock around it, it slowly rises upward. Sometimes it collects in a huge underground pool called a magma chamber. A volcano forms where magma finds a way to the surface. When the pressure in the magma chamber becomes too great, the magma bursts out through cracks or vents. Once it reaches the surface, it is called lava. Over time, layers of cooled lava and ash can build up to form a mountain. Most volcanoes are found near the edges of tectonic plates, the giant slabs of rock that make up the Earth's outer layer. More than half of the world's active volcanoes surround the Pacific Ocean, in a horseshoe-shaped zone known as the Ring of Fire. Scientists sort volcanoes into three groups. Active volcanoes have erupted recently and could erupt again. Dormant volcanoes have not erupted for a very long time but might wake up in the future. Extinct volcanoes are not expected to erupt ever again. Although eruptions can be deadly, volcanoes also bring benefits. Volcanic ash breaks down into rich soil, which is why many farms are found on the slopes of old volcanoes. In some countries, such as Iceland, the heat from underground is used to warm homes and produce electricity.

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Question 6
Read "Inside a Volcano". How is paragraph 4 organised?
- A. It classifies volcanoes into groups.
- B. It tells events in time order.
- C. It argues for one opinion.
- D. It describes a problem and its solution.

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Answer key: Text structure (cause–effect, compare, problem–solution)

1. B. so they are followed in the right order
2. A. to create a moment of suspense before the discovery
3. B. Hold it in place for a minute.
4. A. It suggests a cause for the octopus's intelligence.
5. A. Nobody came to buy lemonade.
6. A. It classifies volcanoes into groups.