Out of My Mind

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is synesthesia?

Teaching Suggestion: Gauge students’ understanding of synesthesia and how much they know about it. Discuss how the phenomenon allows one sense to become another and ask for examples of what this may look like. Link this discussion to Melody’s experiences with hearing music and seeing colors, and to how Self-Acceptance plays a role in the experience of synesthesia.

• A Science News for Students article delves deeper into synesthesia, including what it looks like and what researchers have discovered about it.
• “The Ragpickers’ Wine” by Charles Baudelaire is known for its descriptive language. The poem illustrates synesthesia and provides examples to analyze.

2. Keeping in mind that cerebral palsy can look different for every person who has it, what is your current understanding of cerebral palsy? What do you know about it?

Teaching Suggestion: Introduce cerebral palsy and ask students what they know about the diagnosis. Discuss how diagnoses like cerebral palsy should be accepted and how The Importance of Communication helps everyone feel seen and heard, regardless of their abilities.