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Out of My Mind · Garden Heights
Part 5
for Out of My Mind · Part 5 · Chapters 17–21
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 5
Mr. Dimming gives history class a multiple-choice practice round for the Whiz Kids. Melody enters her choices on Elvira, Catherine turns in the printout, and Melody earns the only perfect score. Molly accuses Catherine of helping, while Mr. Dimming decides that a quiz Melody can win must have been too easy. After Catherine tells Mrs. V what happened, Mrs. V commits to training Melody like an athlete. Catherine studies with her at school, Mrs. V works with her after school, and her parents quiz her at night. On the weekend, a bird leads Melody to describe flight as freedom, and Mrs. V calls the tryout her chance to fly. At the official one-hundred-question test, Mr. Dimming tries to discourage her; Catherine cites Melody’s legal right to participate and leaves the room, and Melody records and prints every answer herself. The next morning Mr. Dimming names Connor, Claire, Rose, and Melody as finalists, announces Melody’s perfect score, and apologizes for underestimating her. The place is earned, but Claire’s complaint and the class’s response to Melody’s joyful movements show that a score cannot force peers to accept her.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Words for tests, proof, and being taken seriously: accommodation, eligible, skeptical, articulate…
Literary Elements
Dramatic irony, first-person narration that outruns the room, and the bird-and-flight metaphor
Cross-Curricular
Assessment design — what a test is built to measure, and what an accommodation protects
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
17
The Practice Quiz — Mr. Dimming gives history class a multiple-choice practice round for the Whiz Kids team. Catherine records Melody’s choices as Melody enters them on Elvira, then hands Mr. Dimming the printed answers. Melody earns the class’s only perfect score, but Molly accuses Catherine of helping and Mr. Dimming says the real tryout must be harder if Melody could win this one. Catherine answers their assumptions by promising that Melody will study for the team.
18
Training Like an Athlete — Melody arrives at Mrs. V’s house angry and refuses to explain what happened. Catherine calls and tells Mrs. V about the practice quiz and Mr. Dimming’s remark. Instead of comforting Melody, Mrs. V insists that she try out and begins training her as seriously as an Olympic athlete, quizzing her into the evening. The next day Catherine continues the preparation in room H-5, and nobody from Melody’s inclusion classes notices she is absent.
19
A Week of Preparation — Catherine studies with Melody at school, Mrs. V works with her after school, and her parents quiz her in the evening. Melody also programs two replies to people who ask what is wrong with her. On the Saturday before tryouts, a bird prompts Mrs. V to ask what Melody would do if she could fly. Melody says she might fly away, then identifies Penny’s free movement with the word “freedom.” Her family’s faith leaves her ready to take her own flight.
20
The Official Tryout — after a nervous day, Melody goes to Mr. Dimming’s room for the one-hundred-question tryout. He speaks to Catherine instead of Melody and argues that the test may only hurt her, but Melody says through Elvira that she is there to take it. Catherine reminds him that excluding her would be illegal, then leaves so nobody can claim she helped. Melody records and prints her own answers. Afterward, Mr. Dimming again warns her not to be disappointed.
21
The Team Announcement — Mr. Dimming names four alternates, then the finalists Connor, Claire, Rose, and Melody. Melody answered every tryout question correctly, and Mr. Dimming apologizes for underestimating her and promises to arrange the accommodations she needs. Her classmates remain cold: Rose is disbelieving, Claire says Melody will make the team look strange, and Melody’s joyful body movements draw more mockery. Catherine wheels her out before the moment becomes even more painful; mandatory practices will begin after school.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 17–21, then answer each question.
📚Knowledge Bank · Words for Proving It
Language · The Vocabulary of TestingThese chapters run on the language of measurement, and the words split neatly into three jobs. Some words describe the gate: to be eligible is to be allowed to try, and to qualify is to earn a place by clearing a standard everyone was told about in advance. Some words describe the machinery of showing what you know: an accommodation is a change in how a task is done, never in what the task asks; to articulate is to turn a thought into words another person can receive; to retain is to hold a fact until the moment it is needed. And some words describe the people watching. A skeptical observer doubts before believing, which is reasonable when the doubt is about evidence and unreasonable when it is about a person. Underneath all of it sits the word this part of the novel is really about, the quiet belief nobody bothered to check — an assumption.
accommodationn.Ch.17–21
A change in how a task is done so a person can show what they know
“A quiet room is an accommodation; it changes nothing about the questions.”
eligibleadj.Ch.17–21
Allowed to take part because you meet the stated requirements
“Every fifth grader in the class was eligible to try out.”
qualifyv.Ch.17–21
To earn a place by meeting a standard
“One written test decided who would qualify for the team.”
retainv.Ch.17–21
To keep something in your memory
“Melody can retain a fact she heard on the radio years ago.”
articulatev.Ch.17–21
To put a thought into clear words
“Her device lets her articulate an idea she has held for years.”
skepticaladj.Ch.17–21
Doubting that something is true or possible
“Mr. Dimming stays skeptical even after Melody earns the only perfect practice score.”
tediousadj.Ch.17–21
Long, slow, and tiring to get through
“Programming new replies into Elvira is tedious work that Melody completes alone.”
elatedadj.Ch.17–21
Filled with a sudden, powerful happiness
“Melody is elated when Mr. Dimming names her as a team finalist.”
assumptionn.Ch.17–21
Something taken as true without being checked
“The whole class ran on one assumption about what she could not do.”
persistencen.Ch.17–21
Refusing to stop trying, even when progress is slow
“Persistence carries Melody through a full week of studying before the tryout.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1A change in how a task is done, so a person can show what they know, is an ___.Ch.17–21
2Someone who is ‘eligible’ for a team has already earned a place on it.Ch.17–21
3To keep something in your memory is to ___ it.Ch.17–21
4To put a thought into clear words is to ___ it.Ch.17–21
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.17–21
Word choices:accommodationassumptiontediouselated- some words will not be used
A quiet room is an ; it changes nothing about the questions.
The whole class ran on one about what she could not do.
6A ‘skeptical’ person doubts that something is true or possible.Ch.17–21
7Work described as ‘tedious’ is quick and exciting to finish.Ch.17–21
8Filled with a sudden, powerful happiness means ___.Ch.17–21
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.17–21
Word choices:qualifypersistenceeligibleretain- some words will not be used
One written test decided who would for the team.
carries Melody through a full week of studying.
10Something taken as true without ever being checked is an ___.Ch.17–21
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 17–21.
📋Knowledge Bank · What a Test Is Built to Measure
Education · Assessment DesignEvery test is a machine built to measure one thing, and the people who design tests spend most of their effort making sure it measures that thing and nothing else. A science quiz is supposed to measure science. If a student who knows the material scores low because the print was too small, the timer too short, or the answer sheet impossible to fill in, the test has quietly stopped measuring science and started measuring eyesight, speed, or handwriting. Assessment specialists call that stray influence construct-irrelevant variance, which is a long name for a simple failure: the score is about the wrong thing. An accommodation exists to remove that stray influence. Large print, extra time, a scribe who writes exactly what a student indicates, or a device that speaks a chosen answer all leave the questions completely unchanged. What changes is the path the answer travels. When a student who has been given that path posts the top score, the honest conclusion is not that the test was easy but that the measurement was finally accurate.
1What activity does Mr. Dimming give the class in Chapter 17?Ch.17
2How does Mrs. V respond after Catherine tells her what happened in history class?Ch.18
3Someone from Melody’s inclusion classes checks why she misses class to study.Ch.18
4How does Melody complete the official Whiz Kids tryout?Ch.20
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 17–21. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.17–21
Melody studies for a week and talks with Mrs. V about a bird and freedom.
Melody earns the only perfect score on the class practice quiz.
Mr. Dimming names Melody as a finalist and apologizes for doubting her.
Catherine calls Mrs. V, who begins training Melody for the tryout.
Mr. Dimming tries to discourage Melody before the official tryout.
6Melody answers every question correctly on the official Whiz Kids tryout.Ch.21
7How does Claire react when Melody is named to the team?Ch.21
8What comparison does Mrs. V make on the Saturday before tryouts?Ch.19
9Catherine stays beside Melody and helps choose answers during the official tryout.Ch.20
10By the end of Chapter 21, where does Melody stand with the Whiz Kids?Ch.21
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Sharon M. Draper tells the story across Chapters 17–21.
🧠Knowledge Bank · The Narrator Who Knows More Than the Room
Literary Craft · Irony & Point of ViewSharon M. Draper builds these chapters on one structural decision made long before the quiz team existed: the story is told by Melody herself. Because readers sit inside her thinking, they know her exact vocabulary, her memory, and her running commentary on every adult who talks past her. The characters do not. That gap is irony in its most useful form — the audience holds information a character lacks, and every scene then carries two meanings at once. When Mr. Dimming treats Melody’s perfect practice score as evidence that his questions were too easy, readers wince because they already know what her classmates refuse to see. The technique makes the reader complicit in the suspense, waiting for the room to catch up. Draper pairs that irony with the bird image in Chapter 19. Melody imagines the bodily flight she cannot have, while Mrs. V recasts the tryout as a chance for Melody’s mind to fly. When Elvira prints her answers, the metaphor becomes public proof: her mind has always been moving freely, even when other people judged it through the misleading evidence of her body.
Dramatic irony
Readers live inside Melody’s mind and know exactly how much she knows, while the characters around her keep guessing low — the gap between those two is where these chapters get their heat.
First-person narration
Everything arrives filtered through Melody’s voice, so a silent girl narrates the loudest chapters in the book and readers hear the sentences the classroom never does.
Metaphor
Mrs. V compares the tryout to a bird taking flight, turning Melody’s longing for physical freedom into an image of her mind being free to show what it can do.
1Readers knowing how much Melody knows while her classmates do not is an example of ___.Ch.17–21
2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.17–21
Word choices:ironynarratorsonnetstanza- some words will not be used
The gap between what readers know and what the class believes is .
Melody is the of every chapter in this book.
3Why does Draper tell this story in the first person?Ch.17–21
4The studying scenes with Mrs. V exist mainly to give readers a break from the plot.Ch.18
5Mrs. V saying that Melody will fly when she takes the tryout creates ___.Ch.19
6How does Draper build suspense before the test results are announced?Ch.20–21
7A metaphor compares unlike things without claiming the comparison is literally true.Ch.19
8Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.17–21
Word choices:metaphorsuspensemetercouplet- some words will not be used
The bird and flight comparison is a .
Waiting for the room to catch up creates .
9Melody is an unreliable narrator, so readers cannot trust what she reports about herself.Ch.17–21
10Chapters 17–21 mainly work to ___.Ch.17–21
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Accommodation Is Not an Advantage
Civil Rights · Equal AccessThe most common objection to testing accommodations is that they hand somebody an unfair edge, and the answer is built into how accommodations are defined. An accommodation changes the route, not the destination: the questions, the content, and the standard for a correct answer all stay identical. Extra time for a student who reads slowly, a scribe who records exactly what a student indicates, a device that speaks a chosen response — each removes an obstacle that has nothing to do with the subject being tested. A modification is different, and the difference matters: a modification changes what is being asked, such as cutting a test in half or lowering the passing standard. Accommodations are legally protected in United States schools precisely because they preserve the standard rather than lower it. There is also a clean test of the objection itself. If an accommodation truly created an advantage, students without disabilities would line up to request one, and nobody ever does — because access to a fair measurement is not an edge.
Think back over these chapters. A teacher gives one practice quiz to the whole history class, and the only perfect score comes from the student he is surprised to see participate. Instead of accepting the evidence, classmates accuse her aide and the teacher decides his questions must have been too easy. A phone call carries that insult to Mrs. V, who turns it into a week of preparation. A bird on the porch gives the tryout an image: flight. On test day the teacher tries to protect the girl by keeping her out, her aide leaves so nobody can allege help, and Elvira prints one hundred answers. The next morning every answer is correct. The apology is real, but so are the cold faces around it.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “In Chapters 17–21, Melody’s perfect results come from her knowledge and preparation, not from an easier test.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Accommodation (same task, different route), or Modification (the task itself changes)? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Accommodation (same task, different route)Modification (the task itself changes) ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Melody earns the only perfect score on the class practice quiz→
Catherine phones Mrs. V about the history-class reaction→
Melody imagines how freeing it would feel to fly like a bird→
Mr. Dimming tries to discourage Melody from taking the official test→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Melody answers every question correctly on the official tryout because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · What a Test Is Really Measuring · Central Ideas & Words in Context · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
Every test is a measuring instrument, and like any instrument it is built to capture one thing. A biology exam is meant to measure knowledge of biology. Test designers call a result valid when the score reflects that target and nothing else. The trouble is that scores are easy to contaminate, because between what a student knows and what a scorer sees lies a long chain of reading, writing, timing, and marking.
When something in that chain interferes, the instrument quietly changes what it measures. A student who understands biology completely may still score badly if the print is too small to read, the room too loud to think in, or the answer bubbles too small to fill. Specialists give this stray interference a careful name: construct-irrelevant variance, meaning score differences produced by factors that are irrelevant to the subject. Such factors do not make a test harder in any honest sense. They simply obscure the very thing the test was built to reveal.
This is what an accommodation is designed to correct. Large print, extra time, a quiet room, a scribe who records exactly what a student indicates, or a device that speaks a chosen answer all leave the questions and the passing standard untouched. Only the route from knowledge to recorded answer changes. That distinction separates an accommodation from a modification, which does alter what is asked. Understood properly, an accommodation is not a favor granted to a student; it is a repair made to the instrument.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2According to the passage, a biology exam is meant to measure ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, valid means ___.SAT · Words in Context
4According to the passage, what lies between what a student knows and what a scorer sees?TOEFL · Factual Information
5In the passage, irrelevant means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
6According to the passage, which of these is named as an accommodation?TOEFL · Factual Information
7In the passage, obscure means to ___.SAT · Words in Context
8According to the passage, what does an accommodation leave untouched?TOEFL · Factual Information
9The passage suggests that a low score can be misleading when ___.SAT · Inference
10Which detail from Chapters 17–21 does this passage BEST explain?SAT · Inference
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 5 “The Thing People Assume About You”
Melody spends these chapters carrying knowledge that nobody around her believes she has, until a practice score and official tryout make the truth impossible to ignore. Write about something people assume about you that is wrong — too young, too quiet, too new, not athletic, not artistic. What do they get wrong, and what would it take for them to see it? 6–10 sentences. End by describing the moment you would most like them to witness.
You can start with: “There is one thing almost everyone gets wrong about me, and it is...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 5 Complete!
You finished Chapters 17–21 of Out of My Mind.
Here are your auto-graded results:
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points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Sharon M. Draper. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Sharon M. Draper’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
