Lesson 1: Helen Keller: In a World of Darkness
1. Background Information for Teachers:
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her father, Arthur H. Keller,
was a captain in the Confederate Army, and his second wife, Kate Adams, was Helen's mother.
Captain Keller took his new bride to the little white cottage next to his family's homestead,
Ivy Green, to live when they first got married, and it was there that Helen was born.
Contrary to what most people think, Helen was not born blind and deaf, but a typical,
healthy baby girl. It was not until an illness that doctors described as "acute congestion
of the stomach and brain" came upon Helen when she was only nineteen months old that robbed
her of both her sight and hearing. Devastated by this tragedy, the Kellers began to plan how
they would prepare their child to begin her new life of darkness.
For the next few years, the Kellers tried as best as they could to raise their baby
girl up right. Unfortunately, with no way to communicate with her, Helen slowly became a
spoiled, uncontrollable child, often getting into mischief, such as kicking the family
servants and locking her mother in the pantry. When Helen was five years old they moved
from the little cottage into the much larger house, Ivy Green, next door. It was there
that Helen would grow into a remarkable woman.
On March 3, 1887, three months before Helen turned seven years old, Miss Anne Sullivan,
only twenty years old, came to Ivy Green to become Helen's teacher. The Kellers had
previously taken Helen to Dr. Graham Bell to see if he could do something for her, and
he had recommended that they hire Miss Sullivan to teach her. Anne was skilled in Braille
and signing, for she had previously been blind herself until a surgical procedure helped her
to regain much of her sight back. Since there were no schools for blind or deaf children
anywhere nearby, Helen's parents depended on Anne as their only hope.
Anne Sullivan knew she had a rough job ahead of her, but she jumped right in and was
not going to allow Helen's then terrible behavior to continue. Helen and Anne often clashed
heads. Helen locked Miss Sullivan in her bedroom and hid the key so that her father had
to come get her on a ladder. Helen trashed the dining room when Anne would not let
her wander around the table, but forced her to sit at her seat and fold her napkin. Anne
would often slap Helen on the hand as a mode of discipline. Seeing this action extremely upset Helen's father, Sullivan insisted that she take Helen to the little cottage next door for her
lessons. Eventually Helen would just come right home
because it was only a few steps away. Because of this, one day the Kellers and Anne took
Helen on the carriage and rode around their property for about two hours making Helen think
they were going very far away. They stopped right in front of the cottage, and Helen
thought she was hours from home. She did not run away anymore after that.
Anne Sullivan spent years teaching Helen. She broke into her world of darkness one
day at the water pump and was able to teach her words, how to read, and how to write.
Everyone who was around them could tell you how amazing it was to watch Helen make progress.
She knew hundreds of words within a few months after learning her first one, and was writing
in pencil shortly after that. The child that was thought to have a dismal future was
proving to everyone that she was not going to accept the obstacles that were against her.
2. Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this lesson, students should be able to:
1. Identify the birthplace of Helen Keller, Tuscumbia, on a map.
2. Give a brief summary of Helen Keller's early years.
3. Compare and contrast both Helen's and Anne's account of the
day Helen learned her first word, "water."
4. Have a general idea what Ivy Green and Helen Keller looks like.
5. Appreciate historical letters and autobiographies and learn to
understand their authors.
Suggested Activities:
1. Make a classroom set of Documents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Distribute them to
students and ask them to read them.
2. Take children, three at a time, and blindfold them. Ask them to
walk around the classroom with no outside assistance from their
classmates. Afterward, discuss how they felt not knowing where
they were going and having no verbal help.
3. Locate Tuscumbia on an Alabama map.
4. Divide the students into groups so that they may compare and contrast
both Helen and Anne's account describing the same event at the
water pump as described in Documents 1 and 2.
5. If possible, take students on a field trip to Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, and use the photos from Document Series 1 as a guide.
6. Hold a class discussion about the photos of Helen, located in Document Series 2, and
discuss how she looked like any typical child of that time. Help them to realize that
people with disabilities are no different than people without them,
and that we should never make fun of anyone with a disability.
7. Bring in an example of Braille and allow all the students to feel the
raised bumps. Discuss whether or not they would prefer to read that
way or by sight.
8. Have several students read out loud the excerpt from Document 3, and discuss how Helen Keller writes with her senses of smell and touch.
9. Show the movie in class of Helen Keller's life, The Miracle Worker, and discuss with class.
DOCUMENTS:
Document 1: Transcription of letter from Anne Sullivan, from
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, p. 187.
Document 2: Excerpt from The Story of My Life by
Helen Keller, pp. 20-21.
Document 3: Excerpt from The Story of
My Life by Helen Keller, p. 12.
Document Series 1: Photos of Ivy Green taken on March 26, 1998
Document Series 2: Photos of Helen Keller
NOTE: All photographs of Helen Keller, except for Helen and Mrs. Coolidge, were found at this website. The picture of Helen and Mrs. Coolidge was found at this website.