1. Helen Keller
"We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others." - Helen Keller

2. Movie Clips Helen and Annie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1uLfF35Uw
Helen speaks out about her disappointment
1962 version
2000 version

3. Play Background
William Gibson created a “teleplay” a television play based on Helen Keller’s autobiography The Story of My Life, and letters from Annie Sullivan
He adapted the production for the stage which later became the famous 1962 Academy Award winning version with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.
Later in 2000, Disney did a remake starring Hallie Kate Eisenberg.

4. Interesting Facts Helen Keller enjoyed eating hot dogs!
Helen Keller wrote to eight Presidents of the United States, and received letters from all of them—from Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.
Helen was an excellent typist. She could use a standard typewriter as well as a braille writer. In fact, she was a better typist than her companions Anne Sullivan Macy and Polly Thomson.
Helen adored animals, especially dogs. She owned a variety of dogs throughout her life. The first Akita dog in the United States was sent to Helen from Japan in 1938.
Helen visited 39 countries around the world during her lifetime.
Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a college degree. She graduated from Radcliffe College, with honors, in 1904.
Helen was friends with many famous people, including Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, the writer Mark Twain, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Helen won an Oscar for the documentary about her life, "Helen Keller in Her Story."

5. Quotes
"If I, deaf, blind, find life rich and interesting, how much more can you gain by the use of your five senses!" - Helen Keller, 1928
"The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination." - Helen Keller, 1908

6. More Quotes
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart." - Helen Keller, 1891
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller, 1941
"The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them." - Helen Keller, 1925

7. Helen Keller Timeline
June 27, 1880 Helen Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her father's name is Captain Arthur Henley Keller and her mother is Kate Adams Keller.
February 1882 After being struck by illness, Helen loses both her sight and hearing. No one is ever sure exactly what disease she had, but some people think it was scarlet fever.
March 3, 1887 Anne Sullivan comes to the Keller home and begins teaching Helen letters by signing into her hand ("manual sign language").
April 5, 1887 Anne makes the "miracle" breakthrough, teaching Helen that everything has a name by spelling W-A-T-E-R into Helen's hand as water flows over her palm.
Fall 1889 Helen goes to Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, her first formal education.
September 1900 Helen becomes a member of the freshmen class of 1904 at Radcliffe College.
1902 With the help of an editor, Helen writes The Story of My Life.
June 28, 1904 Helen becomes the first deaf-blind individual to earn a college degree, graduating with honors from Radcliffe.
Spring 1909 Helen joins the Suffragist movement, demanding the right to vote for women.
October 1924 Helen and Anne begin their work with the American Foundation for the Blind.
April 1930 Helen, Anne, and Polly Thompson travel abroad for the first time, visiting Scotland, Ireland, and England for over six months. This trip is only the beginning of Helen's travels overseas -- she would eventually visit 37 countries!
October 1936 Anne Sullivan Macy dies.
January 1943 Helen visits blind, deaf, and disabled soldiers of World War II in military hospitals around the country.
September 1964 President Lyndon Johnson gives Helen the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
June 1, 1968 Helen Keller dies in her sleep.

8. Act One 1. What was the doctor's diagnosis of the baby?
2. Explain how Helen is James's half sister.
3. Why was Helen searching for buttons?
4. What two presents did Annie receive for herself prior to her departure from the Perkins Institute?
5. Why did Kate give Helen a peppermint drop?
6. What was Kate's first impression of Annie Sullivan?
7. What was the first word that Annie signed into Helen's hand?
8. State the philosophy behind Annie's first instructional lesson for Helen.

9. Act Two 1. What is Annie's greatest problem?
2. Annie would let Helen feel the what on her face, after spelling “good girl” in her hand?
3. Because of Kate's "catch our flies with honey" philosophy, what was her mistake?
4. What does "under the strawberries" mean?
5. Keller expects to get an apology and what else from Annie?
6. Annie did what three things with Helen while isolated at the breakfast table?
7. According to Annie, what is Helen's worst handicap?
8. What is Annie’s idea of the original sin?

10. Act Three 1. Why did Captain Keller call Annie a tyrant?
2. What is obedience without understanding?
3. Annie promises Captain Keller that she'll stand between Helen and the lie. What is "the lie"?
4. What did Helen do to test Katie and Annie?
5. After Keller thought he smoothed things out between Helen and her teacher, what did Helen do?
6. Once reunited with Keller and Kate, what three new words does Helen learn?
7. Representing her first act of verbal communication, what word did Helen sign in her mother's hand?
8. What object did Helen surrender to Annie as a simple gesture of recognition and a symbolic token of gratitude?

11. Reading Assignment #1 “Three Days to See”: pp. 131- 137
Read Helen Keller’s essay about how the seeing do not appreciate their all of their senses.
Do you agree with her? Do you take your senses and your body for granted? How did her essay challenge you to think differently?
Helen Keller talks about if she were given her sight for three days what she would like to see. Take the reverse—if you would lose your sight in three days what would you want to see before you could no longer see it forever?

12. Reading Assignment #2 Select one of the following stories:
“Darkness at Noon”—pp
“And Sarah Laughed”—pp
“Seeing”—pp
Write a paragraph reaction from your chosen reading selection. Agree, disagree, emotions evoked, paradigm shift—all are considerations in your reaction.

13. Story of My Life Readings
Page 3: Rembrances of sighted time
Page 5: being different
Page 7: keys and locks
Father memories
Chapter 3: 8,9
Chapter 4: Annie arrives
Chapter 6: page 15 & 16—What is love
Page 20: teacher
Chapter 7: enjoying nature
Chapter 13: page 30—learning to talk