Out of My Mind (Post 5, Quiz Team)

Melody decides to enter the quiz team competition because she wants to show the world that she can think like any other kid her age.  She also joins the team because she wants to show her disbelievers how smart and clever she is.  Melody must face obstacles standing in her way like Claire, Molly, and even Mr. Dimmings.  These people mock her and make it very difficult for her to make the team.  Melody’s computer makes it much easier to communicate, but people still doubt her because of her disability, and also because of her past.

Out of My Mind (Post 4, Friendship)

The inclusion program in “Out of My Mind” removes Melody’s protective bubble, exposing her to good, and also bad things.  Her first inclusion class is Music class, where she meets a friend named Rose.  Rose, unlike other kids, spends time with Melody, and even goes to the aquarium with her!  The other kids from room H-5 meet friends too, but it is easier for them, since they have better communication and mobility than Melody.  One negative result from the program is the regular kid’s attitudes toward the H-5 kids.  Most of them make jokes about them, especially Claire and Molly.  The author points these characters out the most, because, other than her condition, they are her main antagonist.  Claire and Molly make extremely inappropriate jokes out of the teachers line of sight.  Melody also finds Claire and Molly at the aquarium, where they mock Rose for hanging out with Melody.  Mrs. V ends this conflict by scolding Claire, and explaining how Claire and Melody’s only difference is the severity of her condition, using Claire’s braces as an example.  “‘Some people get braces on their teeth.  Some get braces on their legs.  For others, braces won’t work, so they need wheelchairs and walkers and such.  You’re a lucky girl that you only had messed-up teeth.  Remember that.'”  Melody has always needed a friend.  Shes always been alone in her own world, and adults obviously think differently than children (most of them feel obligated to be kind to her, and children do not), so it gives her a kind of pride that she could make a friend her age.  A true friend to me is someone who I have a lot in common with, who I can relate to, and who understands me.  Some of these do not apply to Melody’s friendship, but I think Rose definitely understands her.  Friendship is extremely important in school, not as much in elementary school, but for anything above 4th grade, where your brain has matured, you practically need friends to get past school.  I do not think I could have gotten past middle school, and enjoyed some of it without friends.

Non-Verbal Communication Reflection Blog (Post 3)

Bullet 1:  In the activity, we have to act out a scenario with both partners using a communication board similar to Melody’s.  Tanner and I chose to act out a scenario where partner 1 (me) acted as a teacher asking for completed homework, while partner 2 (Tanner) acted as a student explaining why they couldn’t turn in their homework.  The activity’s purpose was to help us learn to empathise with Melody.  We learned how she could struggle to communicate with teachers and peers.

Bullet 2:  On my board, I mainly chose filler words that could be used for almost any scenario.  My idea was that if I had to use a communication board every day, I could have seperate layers of it for different subjects or areas, such as school, home, and other places.  It would also make sense to had main words on the top, and maybe seperate layers for uncommon nouns, verbs, or adjectives.  On a well designed board, these layers would be thin and foldable, for easy transportation.  I chose common filler words because I thought they would be the most useful in many situations.  I chose very simple words like ‘the’, question words like ‘why’, ‘how’, and other words that would directly apply to her, like ‘chair’, so she could communicate if something was wrong with or had happened to her chair.  If I had the opportunity to do this again, I may first communicate with my partner about what scenario we were going to choose, because then I could make the words based around that specific scenario.  The reason I used the word ‘may’ in the previous sentence is because making the words all based around the scenario would be easy, but it would also seem like cheating.  Melody cannot create a new board for each scenario – she has to work with what she has.

Bullet 3:  The overall activity was relatively easy, because we both knew ahead of time what we were going to be talking about.  It was slightly frustrating, because some of the words I had to spell out for my partner, and I had not thought ahead to add them to my board.  It would be interesting to see how much we could improve our boards by doing multiple, different scenarios to see and keep which words we used most.  I do not think I truly got comfortable with my board, as I only used it for around five minutes, but by the third sentence I had memorized my most commonly used words.  Since Melody has a much better memory than me, she is most likely very comfortable with her board and has probably memorised the location of every word.

Bullet 4:  This activity has not necessarily changed my view of Melody and her struggles, as I already knew how hard she had to work to communicate, but it does add some extra respect for her.  It also impels me to respect Mrs. Valencia, because she created Melody’s board.  The hardest part of this activity was choosing which words to add to the board, and which words to remove from it.  As I talked to my partner about it, I thought of even more words and had at least another fifty that I could not fit on the board.  That part of the activity was also frustrating.

Out of My Mind (Post 2, Ollie the Fish)

Sharon Draper shows significance of Ollie by focusing on how the fish is trapped in his fish bowl for all all of his life – that is until he jumps out.  The author also shows how Ollie’s life mirrors Melody’s by describing how he is trapped in his bowl and sees everything outside his bowl, but can’t reach it.  This relates to Melody because she can see, hear, take in, and understand everything around her, she just can’t reach it or interact with it.  I believe the fish jumping out of the bowl will represent something that will occur later in the book (foreshadowing) that relates to her being freed from her ‘prison’.  If she ever gains some way to communicate, that will directly compare to Ollie jumping out of his bowl.  When someone misunderstands me, I will always attempt to explain to them the truth, or what really happens, because if I don’t it will feel like that person doesn’t understand, and I may get frustrated with them.  I am fully able to talk and move around, but sometimes it is a struggle to explain things to people.  With Melody, she can’t talk, walk, or truly communicate, so I cannot even begin to imagine the level of her anger when she can’t explain her thoughts to people.

Out of My Mind (Post 1, Chapters 1-4)

The powerful discussion of the power of words and language explains to the reader that Melody is no ordinary child, especially one with her condition.  It also helps seize the reader’s attention by showing how she views the world with descriptions that typically relate to foods (lemons), and other objects that she captures with her mind.  The reader can make predictions about how Melody’s life will change (how it is a story) and she may not succeed in elementary school (she had not gone to pre-school).  Inferences can also be made about how she will attempt to prove the doctor wrong, and possibly use him and others that do not believe in him as motivation (similar to Jeremy Anderson’s story).  More inferences can be made about how her thought processes will develop as she gets older and gets even smarter.  It will be interesting to see how Melody progresses through life and school.  Will she find some way to communicate and show how smart she is?  Will she prove her disbelievers wrong and her believers right?