Seeing the Reason

In Seeing the Reason students develop visual maps of the elements and cause/effect relationships in an investigation to make their ideas visible. Students actively collect information (finding the causes), develop a visual representation of how these causes interact, and revisit how they organized this data to determine if what they found was actually involved in the process that produced the identified effect.

Implementation

Some cause and effect relationships are so basic that they require little thinking, e.g., flipping a light switch to make the lights come on. Grasping more complex causal relationships involves gathering, organizing, and analyzing evidence. Graphic organizers or causal maps provide tools for putting ideas on paper in an organized format that reveal paths of action for events.

Once students have recorded their ideas, they can discuss, compare, and review them to make whatever changes are necessary to reflect their new understanding. A second collaborative review is critical at this point so that they can articulate what the processes involve.

Peer responses including questions to develop clarity may lead to additional revisions.

 

Classroom Management

 

1. Modeling the process with the whole group is the essential first step. Keep in mind that the first examples used to demonstrate the process have to be obvious enough to avoid frustration. However, it should not be so simple that they fail to recognize the value of the revision stages in the process.
2. Monitoring students’ efforts to record ideas graphically enable teachers to redirect students who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with this process After students have practiced the strategy with the class model, provide multiple kinds of cause/effect graphic organizers and causal maps so that students can select one that best fits their approach to the problem. A large group presentation is the final step.