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In her H-5 Class, Melody got audiobooks and recordings that are considered mid- tech devices. These modifications helped Melody be able to read books more!

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IDEA (2004) required that Assistive Technology
devices and services be considered for EVERY student with a disability as part of the IEP process (Module 1).

I'm unsure if it just wasn't included in the book for simplicity purposes but it seemed as if the school did not even consider any advancement considerations from the communication device Melody had. It took her wanting a computerized device for anything to happen.

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Song Choice: Scared to be Lonely - Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa

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Song Choice: Scared to be Lonely - Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa

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I chose scared to be lonely because Melody is extremely upset after her mother hit Penny with her car. She was screaming out but without her Medi-talker she couldn't communicate as she usual does. Her parents left in the ambulance with Penny and that left Melody feeling guilty because she couldn't communicate before Penny got injured.  Mrs. V was left to look over Melody, she comforted her while Melody was full of self doubt. In chapter 32, she had to go to school and stick up for herself on why she was left behind. It was obvious with all of the excuses coming out that they did it on purpose. At least she had Mrs. V to cheer her up through everything. Everybody needs someone, whether friend wise or family wise.

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Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - Scared To Be Lonely (Lyrics)

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Bircanin, F., Ploderer, B., Sitbon, L., Bayor, A. A., & Brereton, M. (2019, December). Challenges and opportunities in using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies: Design considerations for adults with severe disabilities. In Proceedings of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction (pp. 184-196).

I was unable to locate an author or a year for this webpage that we used in Module 1... I wanted to make sure I cited so here is the link... https://www.bmpspeced.org/forms/What_is_Assistive_Technology.pdf

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Song Choice: Supermarket Flowers - Ed Sheeran

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Song Choice: Supermarket Flowers - Ed Sheeran

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Melody is dealing with the pain and sadness of not being with her team at the competition. She doesn't want to eat or be around others. Her mind is racing with questions, her teammates must have purposefully left her behind. Supermarket flowers was the song chosen for this chapter because its about loss. Its about wanting to cry and feeling broken, similarly to how Melody felt about her team.

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Ed Sheeran - Supermarket Flowers [Official Audio]

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Song Choice: This is Me- The Greatest Showman

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Song Choice: This is Me- The Greatest Showman

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After the competition, in the newspaper is only pictures of Melody. They were making a big deal of a girl with cerebral palsy being on the winning team of the competition. Her teammates were upset with her because she was on the magazine and they weren't. Alongside that, at the celebration dinner everyone was looking at her differently since she couldn't eat by herself. The team had left Melody behind and took an earlier flight to Washington DC. Melody was left in the airport crying at how they could've left without telling her. She was just trying to be herself and fit it, yet somehow she kept sticking out. This is me is a song about embracing our differences, something society today still needs to work on.

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The Greatest Showman | This Is Me (Official Lyric Video)

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Chapters 22-25 have a lot to do with the Whiz Kids competition. Paul, one of the announcers at the trivia game helped Melody out by giving her modifications to make it easier to answer the questions. He had a son in a wheelchair so he sympathized with Melody. After many schools battling it out, Melody's team advances to Washington D.C! This song encapsulates Melody's cheer and happiness after getting the last math question correct and winning for her team.

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Wilson Sings "Feel Like a Winner"! | Chuggington | Children's Songs | Music for Kids

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From Chapters 17-21 its mostly about Melody's participation in class. She is able to answer questions now with her talker and is very intelligent so she is getting the answers correct. John Mayer's song is about not following the rules 'inside the box' and thats Melody's life. She was confined in a box her whole like and this talker is giving her the option to take risks. After a bad day in class where her teacher gave her a backahnded compliment, Melody was NOT happy. However, Mrs. V was determined to help Melody make the Whiz Kids team. Melody ends up trying out and making the Whiz Kids team.

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John Mayer - No Such Thing (Official Music Video)

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Song Choice: Best Day of My Life- American Authors

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Song Choice: Best Day of My Life- American Authors

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Returning from Thanksgiving break, Rose has a laptop! Melody wishes she had one too. Although a little upset she doesn't have a laptop, Melody is excited to learn about Stephen Hawking. Later on she learns about the communication device called the Medi-talker. Its perfect for the situation she's in, theres so many phrases and words to choose from but all she needs is her thumb to click. For the first time Melody is able to talk to her friends and family. She even got to tell her parents she loved them for the first time. I chose 'Best Day of my Life' because it felt like just that to Melody, the best day ever.

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Song Choice: Fighter- Christina Aguilera

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Song Choice: Fighter- Christina Aguilera

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Chapters 11, 12 and 13 focus on the inclusion school setting that Melody was now apart of. She has a lot more freedom now that she can guide her own wheelchair and she gets to see her general education counterparts. Music inclusion made Melody very happy, she loved music, its a big part of her life. After music inclusion, other general education classes became inclusive as well! Art, gym, language arts and more! They finally got to switch classes for the first time ever. Melody even ended up going to an aquarium with Rose and Melody's family. 'Fighter' was chosen as the theme of these chapters because its about feeling freedom and thats a big theme of these chapters, Melody taking charge of her freedom.

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Song Choice: Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles

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Song Choice: Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles

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Although chapter 8 starts out rough for Melody, certain things start to fall into place, she gets the puppy butterscotch, butterscotch is a good girl and alerted her mom when Melody had fell. Melody finds out she will have a sibling and even then her parents still pay attention to her. Even after Penny was born, Melody's parents tried their best to evenly distribute the love. Melody loved Penny, she loved getting greeted by her in the morning. Although ups and down might've occurred I chose 'Here comes the sun' because brighter days were ahead for Melody.

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Chapters 6 and 7 show two of Melody's biggest support systems: Mrs. V and her mom. Mrs. V believed in Melody and never said she was too much to deal with. She even made her a modified Fitzgerald key for her communication board! She was her caretaker when Melody's mom and dad were unable to watch her. Following the introduction to Mrs. V, we meet the teachers Melody has had in school, the good ones, the bad ones and Mrs. Billups. After Melody had a tornado disaster in the classroom, her mother came to see what was wrong, her mom was enraged to find out that no challenging work was being done in the class. Mom came to the rescue. That is why 'one call away' was chosen as the song of these two chapters, mom and Mrs. V were always there for Melody and standing up for her whenever needed.

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In Chapter 5, Melody talks about the words pasted on her wheelchair and in trying to imagine what it looked like, this is kind of what I envisioned. I'm sure her choices had much less words but I think the idea of the AAC device she used was similar to that. In Challenges and Opportunities in Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Technologies 2019, "Rather than looking only at how high-tech or low-tech AACs are used on daily basis, we exemplify the possibility of having alternative, personalized ways of communicating. To ensure a good fit between AAC dedicated devices and adults’ personal preferences, the AAC assessment process is crucial. A key step within this involves the selection of an appropriate AAC device" (Bircanin et al., p. 9). For a student like Melody it would be silly to have a high tech device because for her, she would not be able to operate it. She can't control her movements and does not have fine motor skills so she would end up unable to carry the device, unable to press the correct buttons and so on.

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In Chapters 4 & 5, Melody was taken to a doctor who ran tests that she was bound to fail on. Do to physical limitations and being nonverbal, she could not successfully complete the tasks the doctor wants her to. The doctor went as far to tell her mother "severely brain damaged and profoundly retarded" (22). Melody's mother went from that doctors appointment to Spaulding Street Elementary School and enrolled Melody into school. Her mom was her number 1 supporter and was always 'there for her' like the song would say. The song matches perfectly because the doctors appointment and tests did not go how Melody wanted them to, but in the end her mom got her to go to school! Next, Melody goes on to talk about the kids in her class and how their names are also included on her communication board. She thinks the kids in her class are very different from her and describes their different habits in detail.

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'I'll Be There For You' (Friends Theme Song)

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Assistive Technology and family is seen together in chapter 4 when Melody describes the common phrases taped to her wheelchair by her right and left hands. Although she was a little upset because the phrases were limited to small things like 'yes' and 'no' or common phrases like 'i need to go to the bathroom', she appreciated the little bit of communication she had. Her moms initiative to give her daughter a voice is beautiful. Overall, as we learned in Module 7, your parents do know you better than anybody else on the team ever could. Melody's mom is not exception to this.

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In Chapter 3, Melody talks about her inability to control her movements and her photographic memory. She remembers every word to the stories her dad read to her as a child. Ed Sheeran says, "We make these memories for ourselves, where our eyes are never closin', hearts are never broken, times forever frozen still". This relates to Melody and chapter 3 because all these memories she's creating really are for herself. She can't reminisce on them with others since she's unable to verbally communicate with her family but she cherishes these fond memories with her father.

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In Chapters 1 and 2, Melody introduces herself and her family. She loves country music, her dad loves jazz music and her mom loves classical music. Music is huge in her life. Alongside music she explains how she hears everything and takes in all of the noises/words around her. She even associates them with smells and colors. For chapters one and two I chose '9 to 5' by Dolly Parton to capture the tone/theme of the chapters. Dolly Parton is a world famous country singer which is very fitting for Melody. This song also captures a typical persons 9-5 day, going to work, sitting through traffic, and all the other things that happen day in and day out. For Melody, her day in and day out is pretty much the same every day, she can't do anything by herself so somebody needs to help her, she eats when someone feeds her and so on. A line in the song goes "they just use your mind, and they never give your credit, its enough to drive you crazy, if you let it". This relates to Melody because she can't say what she wants to say, people make decisions for her and don't even know she is comprehending whats going on around her. Therefore, they do what they think she wants and it can certainly drive her crazy at some point!