Webquest for the Miracle Worker

Evaluating a Play  Guidelines  Parts of a play  Dramatic Structure

Introduction Imagine that you have suddenly lost both your eye sight and hearing. Consider how this new challenge will affect your normal activities. How would such a loss affect your relationship with your family, your friends, and other people?

Ta s sk  Define resilience and discuss the resilience of the human spirit when faced with great adversity.  Recognize that people with disabilities are often able to overcome great obstacles.  Find out about the obstacles that a visually or hearing impaired individual must cope with on a daily basis.

Process The students will accomplish the Task by participating in the following assignments:  Review the following internet site:  Background on Helen Keller

 Journal Questions  Pages 5 to 33  Pages 34 to 47  Pages 48 to 71  Pages 71 to 91  pages 92 to 122

 Think About:  In Someone Else’s Shoes IHave students imagine that they you have suddenly lost both theiryour sight and hearingability to see and hear. and to cConsider how this new challenge might affect their your normal activities. Then ask students, wWorking either individually or in groups, to to describe how they you would need to change some of their your activities to adjust for their blindness and/or deafness. Have students rRecord their your ideas in a two-column chart, one column labeled " Activity," the other labeled "Ways to . Adjust for Blindness/Deafness."

 Role-Playing Have students iImagine, as above, that they you have lost their your sight and hearing. This time, ask them to consider how such a loss would affect their your relationships with other people. Divide the class into pairspick a partner and have one student in each pair wear a blindfold and ear covers and/or earplugs. Then tell the students to a Attempt a "conversation" without speech. Using whatever means theyyou can think of, students must try to communicate with one another. Afterwards, have them share their your results, including successful and unsuccessful means of communications and the feelings that resulted from their your attempts.  Talking Hands Students will lLink to “Talking Hands” a site that demonstrates the alphabet of American Sign Language (ASL). Students wWork in pairs and spell a number of words, which they you will then translate into ASL. After they you have practiced, invite them toyou and your partner will perform their your words for the class, spelling and signing simultaneously.

 Choose one of the quotes by Helen Keller from and write 3-5 paragraphs explaining how that quote affects your life.

 Participate in a Trust Walk:  You will be blindfolded and given a "trust" partner.  Your partner will choose a slip of paper from a hat, and will read to you what your job is to do, being blindfolded.  You will then proceed to do that job. Your "trust" partner is there to make sure you don't run into anything or anyone and hurt yourself.  He/she also will help you if you are in DIRE need of some direction.  The only way he/she can help you is by saying "You need help or you can’t do this on your own”  Complete the Trust Walk worksheet. Explain in detail what it felt like not have use of all of your senses.

 Choose one of the quotes by Helen Keller and write 3-5 paragraphs explaining how that quote affects your life.

Summary: The Miracle Worker is a three-act play based on Annie Sullivan's heroic efforts in the 1880s to teach her new pupil, Helen Keller. At the beginning of the play, an illness renders baby Helen blind, deaf, and, therefore, mute. Pitied and badly spoiled by her parents, she learns no discipline and grows into a wild, raging creature by the age of six. Desperate, the Kellers hire a young governess, Annie Sullivan. After several fierce battles with her new charge, a determined Annie convinces the Kellers to give her two weeks alone with their child. In that time, she teaches Helen discipline and fingerspellings for words. The child ultimately comes to understand the fingerspellings as language in a dramatic "miracle" at the play's end. HLN Biographies:

Helen Keller: The Light in the Darkness

To this day, Helen Keller remains an inspiration and a heroine to people throughout the world. Find out why!

The story of Helen Keller has been told again and again, and yet it still touches people. Her courageous life and her triumphs over adversity inspire, amaze, and captivate audiences new and old.

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, as a healthy baby. Before her illness, she could walk, say a few words, and had a friendly, spirited personality. At the age of 19 months, she caught a fever and as a result of it lost her sight and hearing.

To compensate, Helen began to rely on her other senses, touching and smelling everything. She held the hands (touch) of other people to learn what they were doing and copied their movements when she could.

Helen was able to recognize her parents and their friends by feeling their faces and clothes. She could tell where she was outside by the fragrance of plants (smell).

Despite her missing senses, Helen was able to communicate with her family using signs she had invented to let them know what she wanted. For example, she would pretend to cut bread when she wanted to eat bread. However, the communication was one-sided. She wanted to communicate in the same way her family did but was unable to talk. Helen became extremely frustrated and angry, to the point that her family was unable to control her.

When Helen was seven years old, her family hired a private teacher named Anne Sullivan. Miss Sullivan was sight-impaired herself. She soon realized the cause of Helen's tantrums was frustration. She was able to gain control of Helen's discipline and began to teach Helen the manual alphabet (a sign language in which each letter is signed onto the hand of the deaf-blind person so that he or she can feel it).

In a famous historical moment, Miss Sullivan led Helen to the water-pump, pumped water onto her hand, and simultaneously spelled out the individual letters, W-A-T-E-R. After many repetitions of the word, Helen realized that the individual signs represented the letters that made up a word that was the name for the thing water, and that other things must also have a name.

Miss Sullivan taught Helen at home for a few years, teaching her to read and write in Braille, and to read people's lips by pressing her fingertips against them (a method called Tadoma, an extremely difficult skill that very few people master).

In 1888, when Helen was ready for formal schooling, Miss Sullivan went with her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston and in 1894 they moved to the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York. Miss Sullivan attended classes with Helen, interpreting the lessons for her by tapping the teachers' words into her hand, and transcribing books into Braille. GRAMMAR EXERCISE (100 POINTS): DIRECTIONS: The following passage provides background information on Helen Keller and her life. Read the information and identify the correct part of speech for each highlighted word (50 words) and write your answers in the spaces provided . When you have completed the assignment, click on File  Send toMail Receipant as Attachment and send to Ms. Raoch. Use the following abbreviations: n- noun, adj- adjective, inf- infinitive, lv- linking verb, hv- helping verb, av- action verb, adv- adverb, pron- pronoun, conj.- conjunction, prep- preposition, obj. of prep.- object of the prepositions, int.- interjection

HLN Biographies:

Helen Keller: The Light in the Darkness

To this day Helen Keller remains an inspiration and a heroine to people throughout the world. Find out why!

The story of Helen Keller has been told again and again, and yet it still touches people. Her courageous life and her triumphs over adversity inspire , amaze , and captivate audiences new and old.

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, as a healthy baby. Before her illness, she could walk, say a few words, and had a friendly, spirited personality. At the age of 19 months, she caught a fever and as a result of it lost her sight and hearing.

To compensate, Helen began to rely on her other senses , touching and smelling everything. She held the hands (touch) of other people to learn what they were doing and copied their movements when she could.

Helen was able to recognize her parents and their friends by feeling their faces and clothes. She could tell where she was outside by the fragrance of plants (smell).

Despite her missing senses, Helen was able to communicate with her family using signs she had invented to let them know what she wanted. For example, she would pretend to cut bread when she wanted to eat bread. However, the communication was one-sided. She wanted to communicate in the same way her family did but was unable to talk. Helen became extremely frustrated and angry, to the point that her family was unable to control her.

When Helen was seven years old, her family hired a private teacher named Anne Sullivan. Miss Sullivan was sight-impaired herself. She soon realized the cause of Helen's tantrums was frustration. She was able to gain control of Helen's discipline and began to teach Helen the manual alphabet (a sign language in which each letter is signed onto the hand of the deaf- blind person so that he or she can feel it). In a famous historical moment , Miss Sullivan led Helen to the water-pump, pumped water onto her hand, and simultaneously spelled out the individual letters, W-A-T-E-R. After many repetitions of the word, Helen realized that the individual signs represented the letters that made up a word that was the name for the thing water, and that other things must also have a name.

Miss Sullivan taught Helen at home for a few years, teaching her to read and write in Braille, and to read people's lips by pressing her fingertips against them (a method called Tadoma, an extremely difficult skill that very few people master).

In 1888, when Helen was ready for formal schooling, Miss Sullivan went with her to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston and in 1894 they moved to the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York. Miss Sullivan attended classes with Helen, interpreting the lessons for her by tapping the teachers' words into her hand, and transcribing books into Braille.

Helen did very well in school and went on to graduate with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904. While in college she wrote The Story of My Life. After graduation, Helen Keller lectured throughout the country and traveled abroad, supporting causes and fighting for rights.

Helen Keller died shortly before her 88th birthday, on June 1, 1968.

Facts and Figures

 Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880.  At the age of 19 months, she lost her sight and hearing as a result of a fever.  Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904.  In 1932 she became a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.  Her childhood education was depicted in William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.  Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968.

Helen did very well in school and went on to graduate with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904. While in college she wrote The Story of My Life. After graduation, Helen Keller lectured throughout the country and traveled abroad, supporting causes and fighting for rights.

Helen Keller died shortly before her 88th birthday, on June 1, 1968.

Facts and Figures

 Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880.  At the age of 19 months, she lost her sight and hearing as a result of a fever.  Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904.  In 1932 she became a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.  Her childhood education was depicted in William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.  Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968. Quotes by Helen Keller

• Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Security is mostly a

superstition. It does not exist in nature.

• I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the

understanding which bringeth peace.

• Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy

for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.

• Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn,

whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

• I seldom think of my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze

among flowers.

• When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been

opened for us.

• The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

• Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The

fearful are caught as often as the bold.

• The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even

touched. They must be felt with the heart.

• It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance its allotted

length. Miracle Worker Trust Walk Worksheet

Name Date

Congratulations on finishing the unit on The Miracle Worker. Today you completed the Trust Walk. Please answer the questions below:

1. Who was your partner for the trust walk? Why did you pick him/her?

2. Did your partner follow the rules? Did you feel secure you’re your partner?

Why or why not?

3. Which was easier for you, being the “guide” or the blind person and why?

4. What significant things did you observe when you were watching the group (be very specific)? ______

5. What did you discover when you were “blind” about yourself? Were you fearful, tentative, scared, and did you find out you really DON’T know these school grounds as you thought you did?

6. What was your biggest surprise?

7. When did you feel most confident?

8. Before you did this exercise, were you overly confident as if it wasn’t “that big of a deal?” How do you feel now?

Tell me what happened to you as the guide, then as the blind person. List all things you can remember, especially your emotions. Where were you frustrated? Where were you scared? Did you let go of your partner by accident? Did they let go of you? How did you feel in the hallway where you had to come to the teacher alone? Was it easy to walk alone to the teacher? How has this exercise made you more aware of someone with this type of handicap? Ways to Adjust to Blindness and Deafness

Activity Ways to Adjust