Dry

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What might the term “water stress” refer to? Why might this be a problem that people need to pay more attention to?

Teaching Suggestion: Students are likely to focus on locally relevant water scarcity issues in their answers. Encourage them to think about water contamination, water prices, drought, aging infrastructure, overuse, changing climate patterns, and other issues that impact water scarcity as well, even if these issues are not immediately relevant in their own communities.

• This explainer from the Council on Foreign Relations offers a global overview of the problem.
• This article from Phys.Org shares details from a recent report on changes in the global water cycle.
• This article from the nonprofit foundation The Water Project explores water scarcity in the United States.

Short Activity

Create a map of the water resources your community depends on. Then, label each water source with a brief note about the current health of that water resource.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity requires that students have access to information specific to your community. If your students do not have internet access in your classroom and you wish to complete the activity during class, you may need to prepare some research resources ahead of time for distribution. If completed in class, this activity would work well as a small-group or partner project.

As they work on their maps, students may have questions about what “depends on” means in this context. You can adjust the difficulty of the assignment with your definition. Consider whether you want them to include agricultural and industrial water use or simply the sources of local drinking water. It is probably best to clarify that they should focus only on major water sources, such as reservoirs, rivers, and so on. In follow-up discussion, you might ask students to rate how water-secure their community seems to be, based on their investigations.

• This interactive mapping tool from National Geographic allows students to quickly create their own maps.
• The “How’s My Waterway?” program from the EPA allows citizens to check on the health of local waterways.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

What are some of the many ways you use water every day? How do other aspects of your life—the food you eat, your community’s medical care and sanitation, etc.—depend on a ready supply of water? What are some consequences that might occur for you and others you know if your own community ran out of water?

Teaching Suggestion: Although considering the possible impact of water shortages might be distressing, the intent of this question is to heighten students’ engagement with the premise of Dry by pointing out that potential water shortages are a serious issue in everyone’s life. If your students are likely to answer this question with a brief comment about drinking water and showering in it, you might coach them to think of the things they do from the time they wake up until they go to sleep again and make a note each time water would be used in some way. This question is particularly well suited to discussion, as some students will think rigorously about the question and offer water uses and potential shortage impacts that others have not considered.