Rain Reign

NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Winner

"Our power has gone out.

 I hug Rain as tightly as possible 

and I finally fall asleep.  

When I awaken 

there’s dim light seeping 

around my window shades. 

The house is quiet. 

The storm bust me nearly over. 

Rain is not in my room.”

Rain Reign is:Emotional, Unique, Surprising, Witty, and Diverse

Rain Reign

Written by Ann M. Martin

Published by Feiwel and Friends

Reading Level:

Lexile:720L

Grade Level:4-6

Suggested Delivery:Independent, Guided Reading, or Read Aloud

Summary:

Rose is a special child who has a love for homonyms, her schedule, and her dog Rain. Rose also is a firm believer in following the law and rules.  Rose has high functioning autism this has made socializing with her peers a bit of a challenge. Her peers struggle to relate to her because she is obsessed with homonyms and when she gets nervous she shouts the prime numbers. One day, Rain follows Rose into her classroom and all of the students fall in love with Rain and finally form a connection with Rose.  Soon after she begins to make friends, Rose’s life turns upside down when a massive hurricane hits the town. Rain goes missing and her absence forces Rose to abandon her schedule and some of her rules to find her best friend. 

Electronic Resources for Educators:

http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

This link will take you to a list of homonyms. It may be fun for your students to see how many homonyms they can come up with on their own and then take a look at the list.

http://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/discusion-guides/9780312643003DG.pdf

Here is a discussion guide for Rain Reign

Teaching Suggestions:

Key Vocabulary:

Homophone-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophone

Homonym-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym

Retard-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retard

Foster family-http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/foster%20family

Stray-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stray

Prime number-http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/prime%20number

Comprehension Activities for the Classroom Teacher:

Before Reading Activity: Guest speaker

In order for students to understand Rose's struggles they need to have some knowledge about what autism is. There are programs where someone with autism could come talk to your class or someone who runs a program for people who have autism.  You could also play a video for your students. Here are some videos that you could potentially use in your classroom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wES6ZeoDaUs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejpWWP1HNGQ

During Reading Activity:

-Give your students a chance to talk about any questions they might have about what they have read thus far in the book.  
-You will need to use a computer lab or have access to many devices
-Have each of your students write their most pressing question on https://bubbl.us/ and then let the students circulate around the room and write a response or an answer to all of their classmates questions.  

Post Reading Activity: Professor Know-it-all
Each student will be placed in a small group and each student will be assigned a topic to become an expert in. They will complete some research and then share it with their group. For example one student might study homonyms, another Autism, another the setting, another dog shelters. The students should pick a topic related to the book that interests them and they should learn enough information on the topic so that they can answers questions that their peers may have.     

Writing Activity: 

-Why do you think Rose's dad left her with her uncle?

OR

-Why do you think Ann M. Martin made homonyms such an important part of Rose's life?