Question 1 of 16 · Reading
Vocabulary in context · Curriculum connections: 4.3B
The Rain Notebook — original fiction
Original classroom material; people, sources and data are fictional.
After every storm, Eli ran outside to inspect the class rain gauge. He wanted the largest number in the notebook. On Thursday, his reading was much higher than his partner Samira’s. “You must have read it wrong,” he said. Samira quietly pointed to the gauge beside a dripping roof.
Their teacher asked both students to explain how they measured. Eli held his gauge near the wall because the roof kept him dry. Samira placed hers in an open patch of grass. Eli remembered a storm when water from the roof had splashed into his boots. Perhaps the gauge caught roof water too.
The partners moved both gauges to the open grass and checked them the next morning. Their readings were almost the same. Eli crossed out Thursday’s number, but Samira stopped him from rubbing the page clean. “Write why it changed,” she suggested. He added a note about the roof. For the first time, he was proud of a smaller number.