Keeping water out of basement?
EDIT TO ANSWER YOUR SPECIFIC QUESTION: Yes, whatever you can do to direct water away from the foundation wall will work. My neighbor, literally, just stopped by to borrow a circular saw so he can cut some plywood into 2'x4' sheets to lay against his house to direct water away.



Mass real estate owner here with same problem in 3 different properties.  All rubble basements get water, especially in Mass in October.  

On the outside:

When it gets dryer or in in the spring, dig out about two feet down (deeper if you can) and a foot out from the foundation and fill it with cement to 3 to 6 inches above the surrounding dirt, sloped away from the house It'll take 5 bags of cement for each horizontal foot (or thereabouts), so you could end up hand mixing 30 to 50 bags depending on the horiztonal run. As you poor the cement, feel free to lay in some chicken wire or other metal mesh or screen to strengthen.

On the inside:

Buy a dehumidifier with a humidistat and leave it plugged in to help speed drying. (another edit: get it to drain into a basement drain or sink....otherwise it'll fill with water and shut off...pain in the ass to empty...build a shelf high up in the basement to put the dehumidifier on..above the sink if there is one...)

Install a sump pump.  Of course, if you go to Home Depot today, when it's pissing rain, they'll all be sold out. Dig a hole in the lowest point of your basement and put in a sump pump.  I won't explain it all here, but any homeowner can do it.  Google "install sump pump"

http://www.mountprospect.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2886

In theory you can drylock from the inside, but I've had no luck with it.  You can also spray foam insulate from the inside - saw that on This Old House, but I think it would make a hellamess.