1.

Identify the instructional goals/student objectives

a. Students will be able to identify cause and effect relationships using details and examples
from the story.
2. Identify what materials you will need
a. Lailahs Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi
b. Sticky notes
c. Pencils
3. Provide a brief description of the lesson
a. While reading Lailahs Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi as a class, we will
stop and jot how characters are feeling, cause and effect relationships, and points of
empathy for how we would feel being in the main characters shoes.
4. Provide an instructional plan
a. Introduce the book Lailahs Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story by Reem Faruqi.
b. Ask students to use their sticky notes to jot down how the main character, Lailah, is
feeling throughout the story. Encourage students to also write down the evidence from
the text that supports the feeling they noticed.
c. Read through the whole story.
d. Allow time for students to share their sticky notes with a partner.
e. Ask for volunteers to share what they noticed about the characters feelings with the class.
f. Explain to students that we often see how one event or moment in a story can lead to
another moment or event occurring. These are called cause and effect relationships.
g. Ask students to pay close attention to the story this time to notice events that cause other
events to happen. Students will write down the cause and effect relationships they notice
in the story with evidence from the text to support them.
h. Read the story again.
i. Have students share with a different partner one cause and effect relationship they
noticed.
j. Allow students to volunteer to share some cause and effect relationships they noticed in
the story.
k. Ask students, Can you imagine how hard it would be if you were in Lailahs position?
l. Allow time for students to think and share their responses.
m. Discuss empathy and what it means to be empathetic.
n. Send students off to practice recognizing how characters are feeling, cause and effect
relationships, and empathizing with other people.
o. Have students complete one sticky note for how a character was feeling with evidence
from the text, a cause and effect relationship with evidence from the text, and a point
where they were able to empathize with a character in their text.
5. Identify the standards addressed
a. RL.4.1: Key Ideas and Details; Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining
what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
6. Identify student assessment
a. The sticky notes that students fill out on their own during independent reading time for
how a character was feeling with evidence from the text, a cause and effect relationship
with evidence from the text, and a point where they were able to empathize with a
character in their text will be placed on an exit slip board. The teacher will look through
 the sticky notes to see if students are able to recognize feelings and cause and effect
relationships using evidence from the text to support their thinking.
7. Provide possible extensions
a. Find a variety of comics from newspapers that are examples of cause and effect
relationships. Allow time for students to read/view the comic strips and jot down on
sticky notes what the cause and effect relationship is and have them provide evidence
from the strip.
b. Have students keep a journal in which they can write down cause and effect relationships
that they see in their daily lives. For example, Since I snuck some cookies out of the
kitchen and ate them before dinner, I was not very hungry for dinner. Another example
could be Mrs. A asked Johnny to stop throwing pencils, but he kept throwing them so he
had to go to then principals office. This will help students to realize that cause and
effect relationships are not only found in books, but that they occur frequently in our
lives.