A Girl Named Helen Keller

The story of Helen Keller is not only inspiring beyond belief, it's a story of relentlessness and efforts towards important goals, and the obstacles we face. Unfortunately for Keller, she suffered from being born blind and deaf, and in her younger years her frustrations were displayed through her erratic behavior. She begin working with a teacher who really wanted to reach out to her, and thought she had the potential to learn using braille. Later we learn that Helen attended a prestigious college and worked to educate students who have the disabilities of deafness and blindness. Clearly she was successful and someone giving her the chance of education probably saved her life. I really liked this non-fiction piece as it gently described Helen's life, and carried out an important message of having disabilities.

This book specifically is a Level 3 reader, fit for grade levels 1 and 2. The story was written by Margo Lundell, and the illustrations by Irene Trivas depict expression with warm tones and simple watercolor weaved into the pages of the story. In the classroom I would create a post-activity with students in pairs, allowing them to first examine our 5 senses and how each are useful. After reading the story, we could ask the students to take away just one of those senses to see how difficult it may become to perform daily school activities, like reading, writing and listening. I would have students attempt to read a few words in braille, and have them reflect in a journal with their feelings of being without a particular sense, and then commenting on how Keller may have felt during her younger years of learning.