Dry

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Tap-Out Testimony”

After reading about the struggles that characters in Dry face during a disaster that their government does little to prevent or ameliorate, students demonstrate their understanding of narrative voice and theme by creating testimony from a hearing on the disaster.

One of the themes of Dry is that it is important to prepare for disaster—and, if possible, to prevent it from happening in the first place. But the government in this novel does little to prevent the drought, and when it finally becomes a crisis, the government is ill-prepared to respond. This has devastating consequences for the people of California. After a crisis like this, especially when the official response has been inadequate, the government sometimes holds hearings to help figure out what went wrong and how to do better in the future.

In this project, you will choose one of the characters from Dry and create two pages of testimony from an imagined governmental hearing. Your character’s testimony will be in the form of a transcript, which is the written-down version of something that is originally spoken aloud. In your transcript, one or more governmental authorities—such as senators or representatives—should ask questions about the Tap-Out for your character to answer.

Your transcript should

• Be about two pages in length.
• Contain the testimony of one of the following characters: Alyssa, Kelton, Jacqui, or Garrett.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the perspective and narrative voice of the character you have chosen.
• Demonstrate your understanding of key moments in the novel’s plot, their relationship to the theme of preparedness, and their impact on your chosen character.
• Express, from your character’s perspective, what the government got wrong before and during the Tap-Out and what it should do to be more prepared for water shortages in the future.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity asks students to consider the book’s messages about the government in relation to its thematic concern with Being Prepared for Disaster. A discussion of their work on this project is a natural way to bring the unit full circle, tying their ideas from this project into the earlier material related to global water issues and their own local circumstances. Since students can choose among Alyssa, Kelton, Jacqui, and Garrett as the focus of their writing, it might be helpful to them to discuss in advance how these characters’ voices and perspectives differ and what events in the plot might matter most to each of them.

You might reference examples of transcripts that appear online. Click on a date to get to the transcript from that hearing. (Content Warning: These may contain sensitive and mature content.)

Differentiation Suggestion: English learners, students with dyslexia, and students with attentional and executive function issues may find it challenging to sort through the many plot points in Dry to choose the ones they will focus on in their writing. These students may benefit from working with a partner or in a small group to make these prewriting decisions. For those who might benefit from guidance with written expression or abstract thought, it may be helpful to hear you model the thought process behind re-creating a specific narrative voice; as Henry has not been offered to them as a choice for this assignment, you might prepare a sample transcript using Henry’s testimony and then explain how the text of Dry informs your language and detail choices.