Out of My Mind · Garden Heights

Part 6

for Out of My Mind · Part 6 · Chapters 22–26

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 6

During two weeks of Whiz Kids practice, rapid spoken discussion leaves Melody too little time to type. When a question finally stumps everyone, she has time to identify hexadactylism; Rose defends her, and Melody answers Claire’s television insult with a prepared comeback. Yet she declines pizza rather than explain that she needs help eating. On competition day, stage manager Paul shows her a multiple-choice board built at chair height and operated with her whole wrist. Moderator Charles Kingsley says the contest measures accuracy, not speed. Spaulding Street beats Woodland, advances with Perry Valley, then wins the championship by one point after a final math question. During Channel Six’s interview, Melody introduces herself through Elvira, but Claire grabs the spotlight by claiming they are best friends; Rose tries to object before time runs out. At Linguini’s, the team rushes up five stone steps while Melody and her mother discover the elevator is broken. Her mother pulls the manual chair up backward. The table falls silent when Melody is fed, so she stops while still hungry; later Claire vomits on Mr. Dimming’s shoes and receives the sympathy Melody was denied.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	Words for getting in and being left out: accessible, barrier, threshold, exclude…
Literary Elements	Situational irony, contrasting settings, and a turn from triumph to five stone steps
Cross-Curricular	Universal design — building for the widest range of people from the very beginning

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
22	Practice Rounds — the Whiz Kids team meets to practice, and the rapid discussions leave Melody too little time to type, even when she knows the answers. A question that stumps everyone finally gives her time to identify hexadactylism correctly. Rose defends her intelligence, and Melody uses a prepared comeback when Claire says she will look strange on television. Later, Elena offers her pizza, but Melody claims she is not hungry rather than admit she needs someone to feed her. Being present still does not make her feel that she belongs.
23	An Answer Board Built for Her — on competition day, Mrs. V explains that reporters may be interested in Melody and compares her to Stephen Hawking. Melody’s mother feeds her after school and takes her in a manual chair to the downtown television studio. Paul, the stage manager, has built a multiple-choice answer board at the right height so Melody can press it with her whole wrist. His son Rusty also uses a wheelchair. With family and Mrs. V in the audience and Catherine behind the camera, Melody is ready despite hearing Claire tell alternate Molly that Molly belongs onstage instead.
24	The Preliminary Round — moderator Charles Kingsley explains that the contest measures accuracy, not speed, and introduces Melody and her adapted board. Spaulding Street faces Woodland Elementary first. Melody answers biology, history, and vocabulary questions but struggles with math, while her teammates have strengths and weaknesses of their own. Spaulding wins 81–77. Perry Valley later scores 82, one point above Spaulding, so those two top teams advance to the championship round for the trip to Washington.
25	The Championship and Interview — Perry Valley leads until the final questions. Melody’s own synesthesia helps with one question, and the score is tied 82–82 before a final math problem that Spaulding answers correctly to win by one point. Melody’s joy sets off a tornado explosion as cameras close in. During Channel Six’s interview, reporter Elizabeth Ochoa focuses on Melody. Claire interrupts to claim that she and Melody are best friends who eat lunch and study together; Rose tries to object, but the broadcast runs out of time.
26	Celebration at Linguini’s — the team persuades Melody to join dinner, then rushes up five stone steps while she and her mother remain outside. The restaurant’s elevator is broken, so her mother pulls the manual chair backward up the steps. At the table everyone goes quiet when Melody’s mother feeds her; still hungry, Melody stops eating and asks to take the food home. Claire later vomits on Mr. Dimming’s shoes and receives sympathy instead of the sideways looks Melody received for eating carefully.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapters 22–26, then answer each question.

📚Knowledge Bank · Words for Getting In

Language · The Vocabulary of AccessThe words in these chapters are architecture words doing social work. A threshold is a physical strip of floor at a doorway, and it is also the moment of entering; a raised one can stop a set of wheels without stopping anybody else, which is how a piece of trim becomes a barrier. Accessible is the opposite condition, and the definition is stricter than it sounds: a place is accessible only when everybody can get in, use it, and leave the same way, not when most people can. Two more words sort out blame. An oversight is something missed by accident, which describes most inaccessible buildings honestly. Deliberate means done on purpose after thinking, which describes every building that works. Between the two sits the verb these chapters keep demonstrating: a doorway, a table height, or a single step can quietly exclude.

accessibleadj.Ch.22–26

Able to be entered, reached, or used by anyone

“Paul makes the contest controls accessible by placing them at Melody’s chair height.”

barriern.Ch.22–26

Something that blocks a person from taking part

“Five stone steps and a broken elevator form a barrier at Linguini’s.”

thresholdn.Ch.22–26

The strip of floor at a doorway; the point of entering

“The team crosses the restaurant threshold while Melody and her mother remain outside.”

rehearsev.Ch.22–26

To practice something before performing it for real

“The team rehearsed after school for two weeks before the regional contest.”

rivaln.Ch.22–26

A person or team competing against you for the same prize

“Perry Valley becomes Spaulding Street’s rival in the championship round.”

oversightn.Ch.22–26

Something forgotten or missed by mistake, not on purpose

“Choosing a restaurant without checking its wheelchair access was an oversight.”

excludev.Ch.22–26

To keep a person out of a group or activity

“Rapid discussion can exclude Melody even while she sits with the team.”

jubilantadj.Ch.22–26

Loudly and openly joyful about a victory

“The jubilant team celebrates onstage after winning by one point.”

logisticsn.Ch.22–26

The practical planning that makes an event actually work

“Paul handles the access logistics by building Melody a wrist-operated answer board.”

deliberateadj.Ch.22–26

Done on purpose, after thinking about it

“Paul’s deliberate planning lets Melody answer from beside her teammates.”

ⓘ 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.

1Something that blocks a person from taking part is a ___.Ch.22–26

2A place counts as ‘accessible’ if most people are able to get inside it.Ch.22–26

3The strip of floor at a doorway, or the point of entering, is a ___.Ch.22–26

4Something forgotten or missed by mistake, not on purpose, is an ___.Ch.22–26

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.22–26

Word choices:accessibledeliberatejubilantrival- some words will not be used

A building is only if everyone can get through the door.

Good access is never accidental; it is always .

6To ‘exclude’ someone means to keep that person out of a group or activity.Ch.22–26

7‘Logistics’ means the emotional side of preparing for a big event.Ch.22–26

8To practice something before performing it for real is to ___.Ch.22–26

9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.22–26

Word choices:oversightexcludethresholdlogistics- some words will not be used

Choosing a restaurant without checking access was an .

Rapid conversation can someone without a single unkind word.

10Loudly and openly joyful about a victory means ___.Ch.22–26

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapters 22–26.

📋Knowledge Bank · The Curb Cut Effect

Design · Public InfrastructureIn the early 1970s, disabled activists in Berkeley, California grew tired of asking for sloped openings in the sidewalk and started pouring concrete themselves at night. The sloped openings they were demanding are now called curb cuts, and they are required at street corners across the United States. What nobody predicted was who would use them. Counts taken at ordinary intersections find that most people rolling through a curb cut are not wheelchair users at all: they are parents pushing strollers, travelers dragging suitcases, delivery workers with hand trucks, cyclists, and anyone whose knees have stopped enjoying a curb. Researchers named the pattern the curb-cut effect, and it repeats everywhere. Captions were built for deaf viewers and are now read in noisy restaurants and quiet libraries. Automatic doors were an access requirement and became a convenience nobody would give up. A change made so one group can participate reliably turns out to improve the same experience for everybody.

1Why can Melody contribute only rarely during team practice?Ch.22

2What happens when a practice question finally stumps the other students?Ch.22

3Paul prepares an adapted answer board for Melody before the team reaches the studio.Ch.23

4How does Paul’s answer board help Melody compete?Ch.23

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 22–26. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.22–26

Paul shows Melody the adapted answer board at the television studio.
Rapid practice discussions leave Melody little time to type, and she declines pizza.
Spaulding wins the championship, and Claire claims to be Melody’s best friend on camera.
A broken elevator, a silent meal, and Claire’s sickness complicate the celebration.
Spaulding wins its preliminary match and advances to face Perry Valley.

6Spaulding Street wins the regional championship by one point and advances to Washington.Ch.25

7What blocks Melody at the entrance to Linguini’s?Ch.26

8What does Claire claim during the Channel Six interview?Ch.25

9Mr. Kingsley tells the competitors that the regional contest measures accuracy, not speed.Ch.24

10What contrast does Melody notice at the restaurant?Ch.26

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Sharon M. Draper tells the story across Chapters 22–26.

🧠Knowledge Bank · The Scene That Ends on a Step

Literary Craft · Irony & SettingMost competition stories end on the win, because a win is a clean shape and readers know how to feel about it. Draper refuses the clean shape. She lets Spaulding Street earn its trip to Washington, then sends the celebration to five stone steps and a broken elevator — situational irony, because the night’s promise of belonging bends against its outcome. The contrast begins earlier in the setting. At the studio, Paul has already built an answer board at Melody’s height; at Linguini’s, nobody has checked whether she can enter. Draper adds a second juxtaposition at the table: Melody eats carefully with help and receives silence, while Claire vomits on the floor and Mr. Dimming’s shoes and receives sympathy. The barriers are both architectural and social, and neither disappears because the team won. The sequence asks readers to see access not as a reward for achievement but as the groundwork of genuine belonging.

Situational irony

The team earns a trip to Washington, then reaches a celebration Melody cannot enter without being pulled up five steps because the elevator is broken.

Contrasting settings

Paul’s studio anticipates Melody with a board built at her height; Linguini’s entrance leaves her outside after everyone else has gone in.

Juxtaposition

Draper places the championship beside the inaccessible dinner, and Melody’s careful eating beside Claire vomiting, so readers must compare how the group responds.

1The team winning and then being unable to celebrate comfortably together is an example of ___.Ch.25–26

2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.22–26

Word choices:ironysettingstanzarhyme- some words will not be used

A triumph followed by five blocking steps is situational .

The studio and restaurant show shaping access.

3How do the studio and restaurant settings contrast?Ch.22–26

4Draper ends these chapters on the victory itself, the way most competition stories do.Ch.25–26

5Placing the biggest win directly beside an ordinary indignity is called ___.Ch.25–26

6Why does Draper show Paul’s adapted answer board before the restaurant entrance?Ch.23–26

7Situational irony happens when an outcome turns out sharply differently from what was expected.Ch.22–26

8Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.22–26

Word choices:juxtapositionobstaclesonnetrefrain- some words will not be used

Triumph beside indignity is .

The restaurant works in this scene as an .

9The Channel Six attention in Chapter 25 is presented as purely good news for Melody.Ch.25

10Chapters 22–26 mainly work to ___.Ch.22–26

Part 4

Think Deeper

Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.

💡Knowledge Bank · Designing for Everyone from the Start

Architecture · Universal DesignIn the 1980s, the architect Ronald Mace, who used a wheelchair himself, argued for a shift in how buildings and products get made. Rather than constructing a place for an imagined average person and then bolting on separate arrangements for everyone else, designers should build for the widest possible range of human bodies from the first sketch. He called the idea universal design, and it rests on a claim about cost as much as about fairness. A ramp poured with the foundation is inexpensive; a ramp added twelve years later requires demolition, permits, and a retrofit that costs many times more. The approach also rejects the separate-but-special entrance, the back door by the loading dock, the special table in the corner, because separate access still announces to a room who was not expected. Universal design keeps the whole point in one sentence. The question is never whether a person can be accommodated after the fact, but whether the building assumed from the beginning that she would arrive.

Think back over these chapters. Practice talk moves faster than one teammate can type, and a pizza offer exposes another kind of exclusion she is not ready to explain. At the studio, someone has planned: a board waits at chair height, built for her whole wrist. Accuracy, not speed, carries the team through a preliminary and a one-point championship. Then a reporter turns toward Melody, Claire invents a friendship, and Rose’s raised hand never gets heard. An hour later, everyone else runs up five stone steps while Melody waits in the cold beside a broken elevator. Inside, careful spoonfuls silence the table; when Claire vomits on the floor and a teacher’s shoes, sympathy replaces the sideways looks Melody received.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1Claim: “In Chapters 22–26, the obstacles Melody faces are built into the world around her, not into her ability.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2Universal design (built in from the start), or Retrofit or special arrangement (added afterward)? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two

◄ Universal design (built in from the start)Retrofit or special arrangement (added afterward) ►

3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect

Practice discussions move too quickly for Melody to type→

Paul builds a multiple-choice board at Melody’s chair height→

The reporter focuses on Melody after the championship→

The restaurant elevator is broken and there is no ramp→

4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument

The restaurant scene belongs immediately after the team’s victory because , which shows that .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Reading passage · Built for Everyone from the Start · 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.

In the 1980s an architect named Ronald Mace, who used a wheelchair, proposed a change in the order of operations. Buildings were normally designed for an imagined average person, and separate arrangements were attached afterward for anybody that average failed to describe. Mace argued for the reverse. Design for the widest range of human bodies in the first sketch, he said, and call it universal design.

His argument rested on money as much as on fairness. A ramp poured with the foundation adds very little to a project, while the same ramp added twenty years later demands demolition, permits, and a retrofit costing many times more. Designing early is also more accurate, because a team that must anticipate a range of users catches problems no single inspection would find. Doorway widths, counter heights, lever handles, and lighting all become decisions rather than accidents. Every one of them can quietly impede somebody when nobody thinks about it.

The results keep reaching further than expected. Sloped curb cuts were demanded by disabled activists and are now used most often by people pushing strollers or pulling suitcases. Captions were created for deaf viewers and are read today in noisy restaurants and silent libraries. Researchers call this the curb-cut effect: a change made so one group can participate reliably ends up improving the same experience for everyone else.

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, how were buildings normally designed before Mace’s argument?TOEFL · Factual Information

3In the passage, retrofit means ___.SAT · Words in Context

4According to the passage, what does a ramp added twenty years later require?TOEFL · Factual Information

5In the passage, anticipate means to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

6According to the passage, who uses curb cuts most often?TOEFL · Factual Information

7In the passage, impede means to ___.SAT · Words in Context

8Prose Summary (TOEFL). The passage explains what universal design is and why building access in from the start works better than adding it later. This TOEFL task lists six sentences; choose the THREE that best capture the passage’s main ideas. The other three do not belong — they state minor details or ideas the passage does not present.TOEFL · Prose Summary

9The passage suggests that a separate arrangement added afterward is worse because ___.SAT · Inference

10Which event from Chapters 22–26 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 6 “The Door That Was Not Built for You”

Melody’s team wins the regional championship, and an hour later an entrance reminds her that a trophy changes nothing about a building. Write about a place, a group, or an activity that was clearly not designed with you in mind — too tall, too loud, too fast, too expensive, too far. What exactly made it hard to take part, and what one change would have fixed it? 6–10 sentences. End by describing how that place would look if it had been built with you in mind from the start.

You can start with: “The first time I realized a place had not been built for me, I was...”

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 6 Complete!

You finished Chapters 22–26 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.

Move on to Part 7 →

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.