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English lesson plan · 4th grade (Year 5 in England) · 60 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 · 6 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.
  1. The alarm rang. Amy got up and brushed her teeth. After that, she ate breakfast. What did Amy do right after she got up? (went to bed / ate breakfast / brushed her teeth / set the alarm) → brushed her teethPrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.
  2. 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 shoes / went to bed / put on her socks) → ran outsidePrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.
  3. First, Pia put on her socks. Next, she put on her shoes. Then she ran outside. What did Pia do first? (put on her shoes / ate lunch / ran outside / put on her socks) → put on her socksPrompt: Look for time words: first, then, next, after, finally.

Hook · 6 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 · 12 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 · 12 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. 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? (cause and effect / description / problem and solution / compare and contrast) → cause and effectPrompt: How is the information organised?
  2. 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? (problem and solution / cause and effect / compare and contrast / chronological order (sequence)) → chronological order (sequence)Prompt: How is the information organised?

You do: independent practice · 17 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 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 7 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. The playground was always full of litter. The pupils decided to put more bins around and take turns being litter monitors. Now it is clean. How is this text organised? (compare and contrast / cause and effect / problem and solution / description) → problem and solutionPrompt: How is the information organised?

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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The Fennec Fox

The fennec fox is the smallest fox in the world. It weighs about as much as a bag of sugar. It lives in the Sahara Desert in North Africa, one of the hottest places on Earth. The first thing most people notice about the fennec fox is its enormous ears. They can be as long as 15 centimetres, which is huge for such a small animal. The ears do two important jobs. First, they let heat escape from the fox's body, helping it to stay cool. Second, they are so sensitive that the fox can hear insects moving under the sand. The fennec fox has other ways to survive in the desert, too. Thick fur on the bottoms of its feet protects it from the burning sand. During the hottest part of the day, it rests in a cool burrow underground. It comes out to hunt at night, when the air is cooler. Water is hard to find in the desert, but the fennec fox can go a long time without drinking. It gets most of the water it needs from the food it eats, such as insects, plants and small animals.

  1. Question 1

    Read "The Fennec Fox". How is paragraph 2 mainly organised?

    • A. It tells a story in time order.
    • B. It describes a feature and then explains its uses.
    • C. It gives instructions.
    • D. It compares two kinds of fox.

Rethinking Screen Time

Few debates generate as much anxiety among parents as the question of screen time. Headlines warn that smartphones are "destroying a generation", while technology companies insist that their products connect and empower young people. The truth, as so often, is more complicated than either side admits. Part of the problem is that "screen time" is a crude measure. An hour spent video-calling a grandparent, coding a game or researching a school project is not the same as an hour spent scrolling through an endless feed of short videos. Researchers increasingly argue that what young people do on screens matters more than how long they spend on them. That said, quantity is not irrelevant. Several large studies have linked very heavy use – more than five or six hours a day of recreational screen time – to poorer sleep and lower wellbeing. Screens can displace other activities that support health: exercise, face-to-face friendship and, crucially, sleep. Light from devices and the stimulation of social media late at night can delay sleep for teenagers, whose body clocks already push them towards later bedtimes. It is worth noting, however, that most of these studies show correlation, not causation. Teenagers who are already unhappy may turn to their phones more, rather than their phones making them unhappy. Untangling cause and effect is notoriously difficult. What, then, should families do? Rather than fixating on a single number, experts suggest asking three questions. Is screen use getting in the way of sleep? Is it crowding out exercise and real-world relationships? And does the young person feel in control of it, or controlled by it? If the answers are reassuring, the exact number of minutes may matter less than we fear.

  1. Question 2

    Read "Rethinking Screen Time". What is the function of paragraph 4?

    • A. It describes a specific family.
    • B. It adds a caution about how to interpret the research in paragraph 3.
    • C. It gives the writer's final advice.
    • D. It introduces the topic for the first time.

The Long Wall

The Great Wall of China is not one wall at all. It is a network of walls, trenches and watchtowers built and rebuilt over more than two thousand years by different dynasties. If all its sections were laid end to end, they would stretch over 21,000 kilometres – more than half the distance around the Earth. The earliest walls were built from packed earth around the seventh century BCE, when rival Chinese states defended their borders from one another. In about 220 BCE, the first emperor of a united China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered many of these separate walls to be joined together to protect the north from raiding groups. The sections that most visitors see today are far younger. They were built during the Ming dynasty, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ming builders used bricks and stone, which is why these sections have survived so well. Watchtowers were placed close enough together for soldiers to send signals using smoke by day and fire by night. The wall came at a terrible cost. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, prisoners and farmers were forced to work on it, often in freezing mountains or burning deserts. Many died, and stories and songs about their suffering are still told. Did the wall work? Historians disagree. It slowed down small raids and helped control trade and travel, but determined armies could still break through or simply go around it. Today, its greatest power may be as a symbol – of human effort, of history and of a nation's identity.

  1. Question 3

    Read "The Long Wall". How are paragraphs 2 and 3 mainly organised?

    • A. as a problem and solution
    • B. in chronological order
    • C. as a list of opinions
    • D. as a comparison of two countries

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

The storm had been building all afternoon. By the time the sun set, waves as tall as houses were hurling themselves against the rocks below Gull Point Lighthouse, and the wind screamed around the tower like a wild animal. Nell pressed her face to the window of the little cottage. Her father had rowed to the mainland that morning to fetch the doctor for Mrs Penrose, and the sea had turned before he could return. Now, for the first time in her twelve years, Nell was alone at the lighthouse. She knew what that meant. Every night at dusk, the great lamp at the top of the tower had to be lit. Without it, ships would have no warning of the rocks. Nell grabbed the lantern and her father's oilskin coat, which hung down past her knees, and pushed open the door. The wind nearly knocked her flat. Bent double, she stumbled across the yard and into the tower. There were one hundred and twelve steps to the top. Nell had climbed them hundreds of times, but never in the dark, never with the whole tower trembling. Halfway up, her lantern flickered and almost went out. She stopped, cupped her hand around the flame and whispered, "Not now. Please, not now." At the top, her fingers were numb with cold. She trimmed the wick the way her father had shown her, filled the oil and struck a match. Nothing. A second match. Nothing. With the third, a tiny flame caught, grew and then blazed, and the great lens began to turn, sweeping its beam across the furious sea. Far out in the darkness, a ship's horn sounded twice. Nell did not know whose ship it was. But she knew that, tonight, it would find its way home.

  1. Question 4

    Read "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter". How does the writer build tension in paragraph 6?

    • A. The first two matches fail before the third one lights.
    • B. The ship crashes.
    • C. The father arrives home.
    • D. Nell falls down the stairs.

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.

  1. Question 5

    Read "The Attic". Why does the writer reveal the initials D.A.M. before explaining who they belong to?

    • A. because the reader already knows
    • B. to change the setting
    • C. to create a moment of suspense before the discovery
    • D. to show Daniel cannot read

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."

  1. Question 6

    Read "The Lemonade Stand". What problem did Marcus have during the first hour?

    • A. Nobody came to buy lemonade.
    • B. The lemonade was too sour.
    • C. He lost his money.
    • D. It started to rain.

  1. Question 7

    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?

    • A. cause and effect
    • B. description
    • C. compare and contrast
    • D. problem and solution

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!

  1. Question 8

    Read "How to Build a Junk Robot". Why are the steps numbered?

    • A. to show how many robots to make
    • B. to show which step is most fun
    • C. so they are followed in the right order
    • D. to make the text longer

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

  1. 1. B. It describes a feature and then explains its uses.

  2. 2. B. It adds a caution about how to interpret the research in paragraph 3.

  3. 3. B. in chronological order

  4. 4. A. The first two matches fail before the third one lights.

  5. 5. C. to create a moment of suspense before the discovery

  6. 6. A. Nobody came to buy lemonade.

  7. 7. A. cause and effect

  8. 8. C. so they are followed in the right order