ela · Grade 5
Informational Reading: Cause & Effect of Earthquakes
Analyze informational text structure. Identify tectonic causes and surface effects in an engaging passage on geological fault lines.
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Explore the knowledge outline and its source scope. This unit supports selected ideas.
Learning goals
- Analyze cause-and-effect relationships in scientific informational texts
- Identify signal words (because, as a result, consequently, therefore)
- Explain how tectonic plate pressure releases seismic waves causing surface shaking
Before you begin
Recognize an event and describe what happens before or after it.
Age and grade do not measure readiness. Adjust reading or adult support to preserve the intended learning goal.
Follow the sequence
1. Practice
Practice previewInformational Reading: Cause & Effect of Earthquakes
Practice · Independent · 15 min
Analyze informational text structure. Identify tectonic causes and surface effects in an engaging passage on geological fault lines.
Teaching and response guide
- Model the target skill: analyze cause-and-effect relationships in scientific informational texts. Use the first task as a guided example before asking for an independent response.
- Check readiness first: Recognize an event and describe what happens before or after it.
- Discuss an incorrect response using this distinction: An event occurring afterward is not automatically caused by the earlier event.
Watch for: An event occurring afterward is not automatically caused by the earlier event.
Check the answer criteria for each task. A supported explanation may have more than one acceptable response. These activities offer evidence to discuss; completing a sheet alone does not establish mastery.