What are some of the things bridge builders must consider before building a bridge?
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1. The number of vehicle or pedestrians that will use the bridge
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2. The width and depth of the water, if there is water
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3. The texture of the surrounding land, marshy, rocky, sandy
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4. The type of bridge
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5. The materials for the bridge
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6. The temperature and weather conditions where the bridge will be built
Use one piece of copy paper and one piece of construction paper. Place each across two books. Can each hold an empty cup? What could you do to the papers to make them stronger? Do it? Can it support the cup now? Arrange the papers one more time, even combine them. Any improvement? Think about your bridge materials!
Take a cup fill it with sand, then drop a marble from about 6"-12" into the cup. What happened? Fill the cup with sand and a little water. Drop the marble again? What happened? Think about your foundation!
Cause and Effect -a pattern of text organization
This pattern of text organization answers the questions "What is the cause of ...?" and "What are the effects of ...?"
The following selection illustrates the cause-and-effect pattern. The outline at the end of the passage depicts the cause-and effect relationships within the discourse.
As Joland was walking pass the door, peeling the banana, he thought about how uneventful the day had been so far. Then suddenly the door opened quickly. It hit Joland from behind and he hit the floor, face first. The banana flew over and landed into the goldfish tank. The peel landed on the floor. As Joland tried to get up slowly he slid on the yellow banana peel and bumped into the 29-gallon fish tank stand. It rolled loudly across the dimly lit room before crashing into the wall. The warm water and fish splattered everywhere so Joland was unable to leave the room until he squishing crawled out of the room on all fours. He felt something jumping around in his pants leg, which he immediately shook wildly in the air. Out flew a struggling goldfish that eventually died.
A cause-and-effect outline is as follows
Cause Effect
Door opened quickly hitting Joland from behind, then
Dropped the banana peel slipped on banana peel, then
Bumped into fish tank stand it rolled across the floor, then
Crashed into the wall warm water and fish splattered, then
Water every where Joland had to crawl out on all fours
Something jumping in pants leg he shook his legs wildly in the air
Out flew struggling goldfish then it eventually died
Student activities
1. To provide practice for your students in recognizing this form of discourse, ask them to answer the test questions on cause-and-effect patterns mentioned earlier.
2. Present them with a partially completed outline for the passage and ask them to fill in the blanks.
3. After they are comfortable with this style of text organization, ask them to generate their own outlines and diagrams of the passages about the different types of bridges. Encourage the students to use the vocabulary words in their outlines as often as possible.