Cause and Effect/Compare and Contrast

Picture books are so great for teaching different reading skills. This week I used the picture books Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg and Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg.

 

So I started the class reading Hatchet like I normally do and when our novel time was up I asked the students to get out a sheet of paper. *Cue the groans*. After they were ready I told them to title the front "Cause and Effect" and the back "Compare and Contrast". When I told them that we were going to read Jumanji they cheered. They literally cheered. Then I got asked, "So is this based off the new movie or the old one?" *facepalm* I told them that the book came first, then the movie from the 90s, and then the current movie.

We discussed what a cause and effect relationship is and came up with some examples. I explained that the BEcause comes BEfore and that C comes before E. Then I talked about how the Effect comes at the End. Those are just the ways that I have come up with for students to remember. I also tell them that my getting sick from eating too much candy can only happen after I have eaten the candy. I don't get sick and then eat too much candy.

The first few pages I walked them through the cause and effect relationships to make sure they got it down. After that I would read a page and then pause and tell them to write down a cause and effect from that page. If they couldn't come up with something I told them to look at the picture and ask themselves a "Why" question and whatever they came up with would be their cause and effect relationship.

We went through the story talking about it and pausing for cause and effect. They liked the story, but they liked Zathura much better. I agree. Jumanji the book is kind of tame compared to the movie (I actually prefer the movie to both the books).

With Zathura they loved the fact that it starts out with the boys from Jumanji that are running through the park with the game. We came up with a few similarities and differences together, and then I put the responsibility on them to find more. I ended up asking for 10 differences for each book and 5 similarities. One think I noticed is that they want to write things like "Zathura had stars and Jumanji didn't." I told them to be more specific. I was fine with them writing "Zathura had stars" and then coming up with something about what Jumanji had instead.

I will definitely do this with my students next year even though one student said, "You shouldn't because they don't deserve it."