Global Read Aloud – Nachman

At Poughkeepsie Day School, the entire middle school has been participating in the Global Read Aloud. We have been reading Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper. Out of My Mind is about a girl named Melody.  Melody is very intelligent, but has mental disabilities, so that she cannot completely control her body, walk, or talk. Melody cannot communicate, even though she has so much to say.

 After an unsuccessful appointment with a doctor, Melody’s mother decides to send Melody to school, in a Special Needs classroom (Room H5). In H5, Melody is bored, because she is only taught kindergarten level subjects, until one day, inclusion classes begin. In inclusion classes, the children from room H5 take classes with the “normal” children, with help from aids. In the inclusion music class, Melody makes two new friends: her aid, Catherine, and a student, Rose. Unfortunately, Melody meets two other people in music class as well: Molly and Claire. Molly and Claire make fun of Melody, and make her feel out of place in class. Then, one day, Melody gets a Meditalker which says whatever Melody types into it. Then after that, in history class,there is a mock tryout for the quiz team. Melody takes the test, and gets a perfect score, winning the prize (a candy bar). However, the teacher, Mr Dimming, announces that for the real tryout, he will make the questions harder. “If Melody Brooks can get it,” he announces, “then the questions must not be hard enough.” After this, Melody is heartbroken. She wants to try-out for the quiz team, but after the teacher so clearly puts her down, she doesn’t have the heart to try.  After school, Melody goes to Ms. Valencia’s house (who usually takes care of her after school, and has been doing so for many years.) Melody tells Ms. V about what happened in school, and after a little discussion, Ms. V decides to prepare Melody for the quiz. Every day, she works with Melody, giving her tons of information, until the day of the quiz.

  We have only read up to when Melody takes the quiz, and do not know what happens next. I really hope that Melody makes the team. I’m also nervous for Melody because the stakes are so high and if she doesn’t do well, everyone will make fun of her and she will feel even worse.  If I were in Melody’s situation, I don’t know how I would bear the tension, hostility of others, and my inability to communicate. It’s one thing to be unaware and not be able to communicate, but for a person with Melody’s smarts, it must feel unbearable. I felt wonderful when I heard the part when Melody got her Meditalker, and I wonder why nobody thought of getting her one before.

  One thing that we’ve done to talk about Out of My Mind is have a twitter chat about it. We reached classes all around the U.S., and answered questions and replied to other peoples’ posts. I found this experience fun, exhilarating, and interesting. – fun because I can speculate about the book with other people; exhilarating because I can connect with kids around the country instantly, and interesting because I get to hear so many different peoples’ opinions. I never thought that I would get to chat with so many different classes at once.

  Overall, I think that the Global Read Aloud is a great idea. It lets us read great books, and then converse about them with our class, and even with other classes. In this, many minds come together to think about one thing, and to learn. The Global Read Aloud is a great experience.

Book Talk – Elizabeth

The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech.

Do you sometimes wish you were a prince, princess, queen or king? Did you ever think that famous pop stars wish they were a little less popular? Well, it’s almost exactly the same in The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech. The royal family, King Guido, Queen Gabriella, Prince Gianni, Prince Vito and Princess Fabrizia each wish they were anything but royal.  In contrast, two peasants, Enzio and Pia wish they were royal. There are a lot of interesting characters in this book and the author really develops each character with their unique personalities. This book is really great because it connects the very different lives. Mysteries are unraveled and in the end everything makes sense.