The Medi-Talker changed Melody’s life “The machine speaks the words I’ve never been able to say.” This quote shows how much that the Medi-Talker changed Melody’s life for the better. Melody can now talk and take tests on her own. She has been going to school with it and loves it. She took a test and got 100% the teacher even doubted her. The Medi-Talker did more than just help Melody talk and say what she wants, it changed her outlook on things. Melody has always loved school but she loves it even more, now that she can answer questions and ask questions. She doesn’t feel as hopeless and I think she feels more like a person now rather than a person stuck in their own body.

In the book Melody went to the aquarium with rose and her family. While they were at the aquarium, they ran into Molly and Claire’s girl scout group. Molly and Claire walked up to Rose “Hey Rose are you here with your parents?” they said, “No” said Rose, “Your dad?”,”Your mom?” they said. “No i’m here with Melody and her family” Rose whispered with her head down. Melody could tell that Rose was embarrassed about telling them that she was here with her. Rose thanked Melody’s family for inviting her and claimed she had a good time, but I don’t think that Rose enjoyed the trip with Melody, because the way she was embarrassed to tell the girls that she was there with Melody. Also Rose kinda acts too nice and Melody said something in the book that foreshadowed Rose being a fake friend. It was something about how Rose is like a Rose but if she has thorns that Melody hasn’t seen them yet.

Melody wasn’t excited going into 5th because she knows that during her fifth grade year they are going to be learning the same thing that they have been learning since first grade. Her teacher thinks that the disabled kids cannot collect or learn information. So because of that Melody and the others have been learning the ABC’s and sounds of letters since they first started school. Learning the same thing frustrates her and the other children because they all are so much smarter and want to learn more then what the teacher is teaching. Melody’s classroom is small decorated with decorations for whatever the next holiday is. Melody’s experience throughout elementary school is very different compared to mine. All she wants is to take a test, and have homework, and be challenged. While for me I don’t want test or homework.

Today we did a activity in class where we could not talk/communicate. We had to create a communication board and use the words and phrases on our board to communicate to our partners. It was very difficult to speak without a voice, you say more than you think throughout a day, you would think you would just need to say “hi” and “how are you” or “help”. But  you need so many more words to be able to make plans with a friend or hold a simple conversation. The purpose of this activity was to show how the main character (Melody) has to live and how she is forced to communicate to others and how frustrating it is for her.

A few examples of words I had on my communication board is: “could you help”, “Yes/No”, “Where is…” “I don’t understand”, “To the right of..”. I chose “I don’t understand” because if I didn’t have that on my board school would be very difficult. If I don’t know how to do a project or something they are explaining isn’t making sense I can simply point to “I don’t understand”. Have”Could you help” is a must especially with not being able to move say you drop your pencil or you fall off your chair. If I had to do this activity again I would definitely change some words. Before you participate in  this activity you never really think about how many words you use even in just one class, all the simple words it takes to ask like “when is lunch?”. I would definitely use some more add some more simple phrases like “How do we do this”, or “What do we do for this?”.

My experience of being non-verbal for ten minutes was difficult and frustrating. It is easy to tell non-verbal being an obstacle. It was hard and took a lot longer to communicate using only your thumbs to point at words. It took a while to find the words and even say phrases like “What time is it?”. During this activity it was aggravating to not be able to just speak and say what you want to say, and not have to take so long to say what you want.

This didn’t really change the way I view Melody but how I feel for her, because when I first started reading I could only picture how hard it was to not be able to say what you want but after doing the non-verbal communication activity I know what it was like and so now I understand what she has to go through every single day. Living in what she has to go through everyday made me feel even worse for her. This will impact the way I view the rest of the story because I know how annoying, and frustrating it is for Melody everyday.

In today’s reading we learned about some of Melody’s experiences in her doctor’s appointments. Throughout her doctor appointments she explained how she feels underestimated when the doctors test her on her intelligence. The doctor Mr. Hugley was asking her simple questions about animals and colors. Melody, obviously with how smart she is knew all the answers to the easy questions that he was yelling at her in a baby voice. “Of course I knew which block was bigger than the other.” “But I couldn’t stack them if he paid me money!” This grabbed the reader’s attention because you feel sorrowful for her, not being able to show her intelligence to the doctors or family.

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