Rain School

• Schools Around the World. As a class, read at least two of the books listed below about schools around the world. In pairs, have students draw or paint pictures of children attending school in another country.
• A Historical Survey of Schools. Have students interview a parent, grandparent, or neighbor about his/her elementary school. Create a common set of questions as a class, which might include some of the following, and compare and contrast the results.
  • Where was it? When was it built? How big was the building? Who spent the money to build the school? How many students were in a class? Was it more like the school in Rain School or more like your school today? What lessons were the most memorable?

• James Rumford Author Study. Complete an author study on James Rumford. As a class, read through his body of work. What kinds of topics does he write about? What kind of people does he write about? What text-to-text connections do you see among his works? Using his picture books as mentor texts, in small groups, research a topic or person and write a group book to show what you’ve learned. Compare and contrast the different books written in class.

• Relationships Between Communities and Their Schools. In Rain School, the school year ended because the rainy season began. When does your school being and end? Why? Does it still make sense in the 21^st century? Research the length of the school year in different parts of the country and in different countries around the world. Prepare small group presentations advocating for a particular school calendar, and invite your principal, superintendent, and school board members to attend.

• Deconstructing Rain School. Students at any age can begin comparing and contrasting their knowledge about Africa with the illustrations and content of this book. Whose perspectives are highlighted in this text, and how does it match against what readers know and assume about Africa and African people?

• Investigating Schools and Charitable Organizations in Africa. Research, compare, and contrast various charitable organizations that build schools in Africa. What are their stated goals? What kinds of success have they seen? How are they funded? What role does the local African community play in the building of the school? How do they go beyond building the physical structure to setting up a school structure/culture? Is there one organization that as a class you would like to raise money to support? The more questions or deeper you go, the more this becomes an activity for older students.

• Reading Across Genres. Have your middle school students read this New York Times Op-Ed piece from the summer of 2010 and conduct research on building schools in Afghanistan. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/opinion/29kristof.html. Do they agree or disagree with Kristof, and why?

Further Explorations

• A charming chapter book series chronicling the daily escapades of a young girl living in a multicultural family in Amazing Africa.

• This nonfiction picture book provides information on schools around the world, introducing each nation with a fictional snapshot of a child on his/her first day of school.

• A fictional narrative about students in rural Haiti running miles each day to attend school.

• A picture book version of Three Cups of Tea, informing young readers of Greg Mortenson’s efforts to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

• A nonfiction photographic essay depicting schools around the world.

• A Global Fund for Children book, this nonfiction picture book tells the story of one girl’s experience attending a secret school for girls during the Taliban’s reign in Afghanistan from 1996-2001.