Using Cause and Effect Flow Charting to Develop

Depth of Understanding and Written Explanations

​Cephu's Family is a Source of Tension in the Band, from The Forest People, by Colin Turnbull

Purpose of the Assignment
One of the core purposes of this assignment was to develop “depth of understanding or thinking.” While many educators no doubt seek this end, I think that few are trained how to articulate for students what “depth of understanding” means or have powerful tools to help their students achieve it. 

For this assignment we used tools created by Dr. Richard Paul from the Center for Critical Thinking as well as visual mapping techniques to help develop student understanding. 

Dr. Paul explains that to achieve a “deep” understanding of a topic of study we must find the topic’s:

1. Parts: all complexities, parts, or aspects of the topic
2. Interrelationships Between Parts of the Whole: how the parts fit together, especially by cause and effect
3. Fundamentals: fundamental ideas or components, or “deepest causal factors”
4. Interrelationships with Other Topics or Ideas: how this topic relates to other topics of study, how it fits into a larger perspective

A simple way to achieve this “depth” of thinking is to create a flow chart on the topic of study that maps out cause and effects relationships.  In fact, the image of a cause and effect flow chart becomes a powerful way for students to picture what “depth” looks like and to better understand it.  Please note that this type of visual map is not a loose “webbing” chart, but is a more disciplined chart that seeks to map out how one part of a topic may cause or lead to another part, the effect.
 
Step One of the Project: Reading and Answering a Study Question in Writing
The following assignment was part of my seventh graders’ study of hunting and gathering societies and is based on a reading from The Forest People by Colin Turnbull.  This classic of anthropology explores the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Congo basin in Central Africa.  Students were asked to write an answer to a study question.  Below is the study question, the relevant passage, and the written responses from three students.  
 
The Study Question 
Cephu’s family is a source of tension in the band.  Why?
 
The Reading: Excerpt on Cephu's Family, p. 37, The Forest People
Cephu's family was large, but not large enough, even with all his in-laws, to form a hunting group of his own.  To do this you have to have at the very least six or seven individual families, each with its own hunting net; only in this way can you have an efficient net hunt, with the women and children driving the animals into the long circle of nets, joined end to end. Cephu's group was usually not more than four families, and so he tacked himself onto Njobo and Ekianga. Sometimes this worked out well enough, as Pygmies are great people for visiting their relatives, and one or the other group might be depleted by absences. But at other times they would have a number of families visiting them, and then the addition of Cephu and all his relatives made the whole group far too large and unwieldy. But as he had taken the precaution of exchanging sisters, he could not be refused, and so he would make his own little camp close by connected by a narrow trail. He would follow the others whenever they went hunting and was invariably blamed when the hunt was not a success. At night he and his family kept to themselves, seldom venturing into the main camp. They sat around their own fire, offended, aloof, and rather unhappy, but with hides as tough as that of a forest buffalo and impervious to the most obvious hints and thinly veiled insults. But Cephu was the best storyteller in the forest.
 
Student One’s Answer
Cephu’s family is a source of tension because they do not have enough people to have their own hunting group so they tag along with others and get in the way.

Student Two’s Answer
Cephu’s family group was too small to make their own hunting group.  Therefore, they attached themselves to Njobo and Ekianga’s group.  This made Njobo’s and Ekianga’s group far too big, but they could not refuse Cephu because Cephu had exchanged sisters.  So Njobo and Ekianga didn’t want Cephu as part of their group.  They resented him and blamed him for a failed hunt. 
 
Student Three’s Answer
The reason Cephu’s family is a source of tension within the band is because the additional members were often disadvantageous to the hunting activity that was the basis of the Pygmies’ survival.  One would think that the more hunters in a group, the better, but we are told that Cephu’s group mad the whole “far too large and unwieldy.”  You need a minimum of six individual families to have an efficient net hunt, and it is not explained why more families, especially if they had their own nets, would be bad.  Perhaps too many wives and children driving the animals would produce too much noise and confusion, or perhaps too large a circle of net-hunters could not work well together. 

Since Cephu’s group had only four families, they attached themselves to Njobo and Ekianga’s hunting group and were blamed when a hunt did not succeed.  Whatever the hunt produced had to be shared by everyone.  Thus, when the hunt was not successful, Njobo and Ekianga’s group resented the extra mouths.
 
Step Two: Creating a Flow Chart of Your Answer to the Question
After writing an answer to the question, students then created a cause and effect flow chart of their answer to explore how “deep” their thinking and written answer was.  Examine the charts that follow and note how the parts of a cause and effect flow chart directly relate to Dr. Paul’s articulation of “depth” discussed above. The “parts of the topic” correspond to each box on the flow chart.  The “interrelationships between the parts” are the lines of connection drawn between boxes that show causes and effects.  The “fundamentals” or “deepest causal factors” are the box or boxes near the top of the flow chart, from which all other parts flow.  For this assignment we did not work with the fourth aspect of depth, “the interrelationships with other topics or ideas,” but we did work with it in a later assignment. 

As you will clearly see below, the flow charts make comparing the students’ written answers an easy task.  Student One’s answer covers only a few “parts” of the topic covered in the reading, while Students Two and Three consider many more of the key “parts” in the reading and therefore also are able to map out more of the “interrelationships between the parts” and to discover the “deep causal factors.” 

The next step would be for students to improve their answer by working from the reading to find more of the “parts” and “interrelationships”, mapping these out on the flow chart, and then, finally, to add this new thinking to their written response to the question. ​

​Using the Elements of Reasoning and Cause and Effect Flow Charting in the
Analytical Essay Writing Process:  Preparing for Paragraph Construction
Things Fall Apart, the Banana Leaf Paragraph 

​Preparing to Write a Paragraph Using the Elements of Reason and Flow Charting
​           After completing the preliminary steps of “the analytical essay writing process” my students focus on learning how to construct an excellent paragraph.  Our “ideal paragraph” presents the idea to be proven in a concise topic sentence, supports the idea with detailed evidence, and concludes by explaining how the evidence proves or supports the idea presented.  In order to construct an excellent paragraph, students need to deeply understand the logic of the incident they will use to support their idea.  They develop this understanding by using the “elements of reasoning” to discover the logic of the incident.  They further develop their understanding by completing “a cause and effect flow chart” of the incident. 
            The novel being analyzed here is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  The topic being analyzed is the main character, Okonkwo.  In “the banana leaf incident” analyzed here Okonkwo demonstrates key aspects of his personality.  The example provided was completed by seventh grader David.  Read the excerpt from the book to help make the student's work more understandable.
 
Excerpt from Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Chapter Five
          The Feast of the New Yam was approaching and Umuofia was in a festival mood. It was an occasion forgiving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other diety. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct And what was more, she was in close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth.
          The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan. New yams could not be eaten until some had first been offered to these powers. Men and women, young and old, looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty--the new year. On the last night before the festival, yams of the old year were all disposed of by those who still had them. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the previous year. All cooking pots, calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed, especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded. Yam foo-foo and vegetable soup was the chief food in the celebration. So much of it was cooked that, no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages, there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day. The story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other, and it was not until late in the evening that one of them saw for the first time his in-Iaw who had arrived during the course of the meal and had fallen to on the opposite side. It was only then that they exchanged greetings and shook hands over what was left of the food.
          The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia. And every man whose arm was strong, as the Ibo people say, was expected to invite large numbers of guests from far and wide Okonkwo always asked his wives' relations, and since he now had three wives his guests would make a fairly big crowd.
          But somehow Okonkwo could never become as enthusiastic over feasts as most people He was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm-wine. But he was always uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting for a feast or getting over it. He would be very much happier working on his farm.
          The festival was now only three days away Okonkwo's wives had scrubbed the walls and the huts with red earth until they reflected light. They had then drawn patterns on them in white, yellow and dark green. They then set about painting themselves with cam wood and drawing beautiful black patterns on their stomachs and on their backs. The children were also decorated, especially their hair, which was shaved in beautiful patterns. The three women talked excitedly about the relations who had been invited, and the children reveled in the thought of being spoiled by these visitors from the motherland. Ikemefuna was equally excited. The New Yam Festival seemed to him to be a much bigger event here than in his own village, a place which was already becoming remote and vague in his imagination.
          And then the storm burst. Okonkwo, who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger, suddenly found an outlet.
          "Who killed this banana tree?" he asked.
          A hush fell on the compound immediately.
          "Who killed this tree? Or are you all deaf and dumb?"
          As a matter of fact the tree was very much alive. Okonkwo's second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food, and she said so. Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping. Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative, "It is enough, Okonkwo," pleaded from a reasonable distance.
          His anger thus satisfied, Okonkwo decided to go out hunting. He had an old rusty gun made by a clever blacksmith who had come to live in Umuofia long ago. But although Okonkwo was a great man whose prowess was universally acknowledged, he was not a hunter. In fact he had not killed a rat with his gun. And so when he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun, the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot. Unfortunately for her, Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out again and aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn. He pressed the trigger and there was aloud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children. He threw down the gun and jumped into the barn, and there lay the woman, very much shaken and frightened but quite unhurt. He heaved a heavy sigh and went away with the gun.
          ​In spite of this incident the New Yam Festival was celebrated with great joy in Okonkwo's household. Early that morning as he offered a sacrifice of new yam and palm-oil to his ancestors he asked them to protect him, his children and their mothers in the new year.

Using the Elements of Reasoning to Seek the Logic of Okonkwo in “the banana leaf incident,” page 36, by David, 7th grader
​
Purpose:  One of Okonkwo’s main purposes in this incident is to let out his anger. He is pretty much walking around like a bomb, ready to go off. He is looking for an outlet for his aggression.
Question:  Okonkwo’s question is, “How can I find a way to let out my anger?” How can he find a way to get his feelings out.
Information:  Okonkwo’s information in this incident is that it is the time of the New Yam Festival. He knows that everybody is in a happy mood and that he does not like festivals or celebrating. He knows that he has found a banana tree with a few leaves cut off. He knows that the tree is very much alive even though he pretends that it is dead. Okonkwo also knows that his wives and children will listen to him and that they will not try to speak out against his poor reason for beating them.
Concepts:  Concepts that Okonkwo is thinking about and uses in this incident are aggression, celebration, and control over family.
Assumptions:  He assumes the tree is dead.                   
Conclusions:  Okonkwo decides to let out his anger by beating his wife. He finds a tree with a few leaves cut off and pretends that it is dead, even though he knows it is alive. His wife admits to cutting a few leaves off and so he beats her.
Consequences:  Because of the actions Okonkwo chooses to take there are consequences. The first consequence was that he was able to find an outlet for his anger. He was able to find a way to get his aggression out and his anger is satisfied. Another consequence was that his wife and daughter were left crying. The third consequence is that his other wives are still afraid of him and are still under his control. The final consequence of beating his wife for such a poor reason was that his wife was provoked to a point where she made fun of him and insulted him about his hunting ability.
 
In this incident, Okonkwo makes a second important decision
Information 2:  Okonkwo’s second set of information for his second set of actions is different. Okonkwo decided to shoot at his wife because she caused him to get extremely angry. He heard her say something about his weakness of hunting and so he was enraged.
Conclusions 2:  Because Okonkwo’s second wife provoked him so much he decided to run to his room and get his gun. Instead of taking his gun out to hunt, he chose to use it on his wife. He fires the gun at his wife and  almost hits her.
Consequence 2:  There were similar outcomes to the actions that Okonkwo took the second time too. His family was still under his control and they were still afraid of him. However, because his second action was so much more serious and dangerous, Okonkwo was shaken along with his wife and was quite scared for a moment.
Point of View:  Okonkwo did both of those things for almost the same reasons.  He looks at it only  from his point of view.  He doesn’t think about anyone else.
​
Cause and Effect Flow Chart
The Logic of the Banana Leaf Incident
​

The Paragraph
                  One event that helps to show that Okonkwo is a violent man is when Okonkwo beats his wife and shoots at her over a fight about a banana tree. This incident takes place during the New Yam Festival. This festival is a time when the entire clan is in a happy mood. Everybody is celebrating the new season. Okonkwo does not like this festival or any festivals for that matter because he believes that everybody should be working instead of celebrating. During the New Yam Festival Okonkwo walked around with anger that was building up inside. This anger built up more and more and finally he found a way to let it out. He found a banana tree with a few leaves cut off and asked his wives who had killed it. He knew that they only cut a few leaves off and anybody could tell that it was still alive. However, Okonkwo pretended that it was dead and when his second wife admitted to cutting a few leaves off, he beat her heavily. She and her daughter were left crying. This action relieved him of most of his anger and so he decided to go hunting. Then, his beaten wife insulted him and he became enraged even more than before. He ran to his room and returned with his hunting gun. He aimed it at her and fired. He barely missed her and ran after her to see if she was ok. Instead of sitting and yelling at his wives, Okonkwo took action. He did not use words or any other method of discipline to try and punish his wife. Instead Okonkwo chose to beat his wife until she cried. He then proceeded to fire a gun at his wife. He shot a lethal weapon at a member of his own family and could have easily killed her. It is clear that Okonkwo is an extremely violent man and resorts to violence.

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​Cause and Effect Flow Charts to Synthesize a Major Unit of Study:

​The Logic of the BaMbuti and Hunter-Gatherer Societies

To conclude our major study of The Forest People and hunting and gathering societies students synthesize the key concepts learned during a several month long study with a project using cause and effect flow charts.  Cause and effect flow charting helps students develop depth of understanding, one of the most important standards of reason, by asking them to synthesize into a logical whole all of the ideas they have learned.  It takes students understanding of the topic to a entirely different level, revealing a deeper strata of new insights and reflecting the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  This is a very challenging exercise, but one that many students enjoy.