Rules

Rules by Cynthia Lord     

Copyright 2006

Published by Scholastic Press

Lexile Measuer: 780L

Grade: 4 and 5

Friendship, Normalcy, Life, Love, Understanding, Rules, Compassion, Diversity

Teachers, here are some suggestions for activities and resources that go along with this novel:

Key Vocabulary:

• communication, conversation,occupational, therapy, connection, interaction, nonverbal, relationship, verbal

Before Reading Activity:

• Students can fill out the K and W sections of a KWL chart, inserting what they know about autism and what they would like to know.  After reading, they can fill out the L column with what new information they have learned about autism.

During Reading Activity:

• Create and update a Voki throughout the reading in order to keep track of the character's relationships and connections to one another.

After Reading, Writing Activity:

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  Have students describe the top five words or phrases they would want in a “communication book” and explain why they chose these particular words and/or phrases.

Web Resources:

• Here is a discussion guide for the novel, Rules.  It provides questions for before, during, and after the reading, as well as author information, novels to compare and contrast, and similar websites.
• Here is a webquest for the novel.  It provides a project for students to complete after reading the novel regarding the rules that Catherine writes.

Lord, C. (2006). Rules. New York: Scholastic Press.