High School Development Book Project

           High School Development Book Project

        For The Comprehensive High School class, we had to do a project where we read a young adult book or a book about a high school student and their development throughout the novel. We could choose any way we wanted to present it to the class. The directions for the project were really open-ended and vague because our professor wanted us to have fun and get creative with it.

        Here are the directions for the project:

         While reading your book, mark pages and passages that reveal things about the character you are “following” that relate to the character’s development. In particular:

·      Introspective

·      Somatic

·      Intellectual

·      Familial

·      Communal

          Be prepared to describe your character’s growth (or changes) from the beginning to the ending of the book. You may do this through easy, captioned illustrations, or a digital presentation. Or any other form that appeals to you as long as you check with me first.

        I chose to create my project using PowerPoint to present my information in a slideshow form. But I can't figure out how to get it on this blog without using a program that asks for money or a credit card, so instead I'm going to put the outline of my slideshow on here instead, which is the next best thing I could think of. If you really want to see me slideshow (which is really cool may I add), leave a comment with your email address & I will send it to you by email as an attachment.

Young Adult Book Assignment:

Out of My Mind

By: Sharon M. Draper

Slideshow created by: Marissa Kleckner

Introduction to the Main Character: Melody

•       Has Cerebral Palsy

•       Has a photographic memory

•       Smartest kid in her whole school

•       But no one knows it

•       Teachers & doctors don’t think she’s capable of learning

•       Can’t talk, walk, or write

Basic Plot

•       Melody is was an only child

•        Hates her special education classes & that she isn’t able to talk or communicate

•       Eventually she is given a communicative device to help her talk

•       She gets the opportunity to participate in a trivia competition

•       Her Mom becomes pregnant & Melody has a baby sister

Basic Plot Continued

•       Inclusion classes = included in the normal classrooms

•       Gets a special aid to help her communicate & do better in school

•       Melody makes the competitive Whiz Kids Trivia Team

•       Everything goes downhill

•       But the day of the competition the team ditches Melody & she never gets to participate

•       Her younger sister gets hit by a car

Introspective Domain

•       Personal Identity – wants to be able to talk & to express herself

•       Who am I? – She is trying to answer this question herself constantly throughout the book

•       Self talk where they weigh, reevaluate, & critically analyze everything

•       Melody does a lot of self talking throughout the book, especially in the beginning when she couldn’t talk or communicate to anyone else

Introspective Domain Continued

•       Has obvious positive & negative thoughts depending on her mood & the situation

•       Melody learns a lot about herself and her potential when she is included into the normal classes & studies & prepares for the Whiz Kids Trivia Competition

•       She develops her personal identity and understanding of herself throughout the book

Somatic Domain

•       Physical changes – Melody has mainly physical problems, where she doesn’t have much control of her body, but her brain isn’t really affected

•       Has no balance

•       Uses a wheelchair to get around

•       Has to rely on other people for eating, drinking, clothing, and going to the bathroom

•       Tornado Explosions = lose control of her body

Somatic Domain Continued

•       Worried about their looks – She’s constantly worried about how she looks & wants to look as normal as possible & wants to fit in

•       Wants her mom to dress her up in nice clothes & tries her best to have good personal hygiene

•       Concerns regarding their sexuality, personal hygiene, & overall well being

•       Prone to mood swings & violent behavior = tornado explosion when gets mad, excited, or frustrated

•       Melody explains at the end that 5^th grade is pretty rough, rocky, & awkward

Intellectual Domain

•       Cognitive development

•       Students all at different levels

•       Read a lot growing up

•       Loves watching the Discovery channel, listening to the radio, & likes facts

•       Melody is smart & has a photographic memory

Intellectual Domain Continued

•       Gets an assistant to take her to classes, sit with her, and help her participate

•       Knows the answer to almost every question

•       Is very smart for her age

•       Strong in every subject area (especially language arts) but weak in math

Familial Domain

•       Relationship/how interact with siblings, parents, and other family members – very close with her family & her neighbor Mrs. Valencia

•       Has major support from her family & neighbor Mrs. Valencia who all believe in Melody & encourage her

•       Changing roles & tensions in the family may affect self-concept & self esteem (birth of Penny)

Familial Domain Continued

•       In the beginning of the book, her relationship with her parents wasn’t as good because she wasn’t able to talk & communicate

•       Mom becomes pregnant & Melody has a baby sister, which changes the dynamic of the family

•       Jealous that Penny is born normal & can walk, talk, and function normally

Communal Domain

•       Social aspect of school

•       She’s constantly comparing herself & her development to the normal kids

•       Wants to be like all the other kids – she wants to be normal

•       Likes watching the normal kids

•       She’s jealous of all the things they can do & she can’t

Communal Domain Continued

•       Kids ignore her, pretend she’s invisible, or mock & make fun of her

•       Want to belong & feel accepted

•       All Melody wants is a friend

•       Even some of the teacher’s don’t give Melody a chance & discriminate against her

•       Group participation in their school, neighborhood, & local community

Last Communal Domain Slide

•       Because Melody has an assistant other children get jealous & accuse her of cheating

•       Doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. She feels like she doesn’t fit in with the special education kids, but she doesn’t feel like she fits in with the normal kids

•       Does not like eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom in public because she gets embarrassed

Conclusion

•       Author Sharon M. Draper Short Interview (3 minute YouTube Video)

http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=35

•       Are there any questions, comments, or concerns?

•       Thank you for watching & listening to my presentation, I appreciate it.