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Example research essay topic: Helen Keller Miracle Worker - 2,138 words

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I. Being a good teacher. II. The life of Helen Keller. 1. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson a. the story based upon Helen Keller's autobiography; 2.

Helens life in darkness and silence: a. Anne Sullivan a teacher for Helen; b. great difficulties; c. Anne controlled the discipline; d. first attempt to teach Helen; e. the real miracle; f.

Annes methods of teaching; g. Helen Keller a prominent figure of her century. 3. The role of Anne Sullivan in Helens life: a. a pioneer in the field of education; b. a good example for others; 4. The problems covered by Anne Sullivan: a.

the blind child should live a real life; b. the problem of dependency; c. the problem of discipline. III. The real teacher. The task of teaching and educating blind children is most peculiar and differs enormously from the task of teaching and educating children who are able to see and hear.

The peculiarity of this task consists not only in the fact that these handicapped children have no eyesight or hearing and, consequently, the methods of educational influence upon the child must be based exclusively on tactile perception. If the blind child has other disabilities as well, the situation becomes still more complicated. Every disabled child is unique, and it is difficult to say in general about the resulting individual challenges. But Annie Sullivan, a teacher of a blind and deaf girl, Helen Keller, proved that disabled children do not or should not live their lives in a social vacuum. Its important that they learn from the beginning to get along with other people. Helen Keller If a person makes up his mind to choose teaching career it is necessary for him to understand that teaching is not an easy job.

Certainly, teachers dont produce goods, they dont rule countries. But a person who says that teaching is an easy job has never tried his hand in it. It is evident that teaching blind and deaf children is more difficult and responsible. Being a good teacher takes time and energy.

Besides, it is evident that not every person can be a good teacher. He or she should have a special gift for it. It does not mean to love children and possess good teaching technique. To master teaching methods properly and to make good use of them one should not only know the theory of education but it is also necessary to put all those methods into practice.

A real teacher should open all sides of his or her character. And only this way can make the process of learning interesting and exciting. It is more important than simply giving knowledge. In the play The Miracle Worker William Gibson describes one of the best teacher Annie Sullivan and her deaf and blind student Helen Keller.

The play is based upon Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life that was written with help from Anne Sullivan. The Story tells about Helens life up to age 21 and about her relationship with her teacher Annie Sullivan who brought Helen into the world of education. American humorist and author Mark Twain called Anne Sullivan "Miracle Worker"; and her deeds were real miracles. She helped a blind and deaf child not only to learn language of signs but also made her believe in her ability; though that path was not easy.

Helen Keller couldnt do most of the things that other children could. She had been blind and deaf from her childhood. The girl lived in complete darkness and silence. She made signs with her hands and arms when she wanted or needed something.

She would push for go and pull for come, or she would pretend to cut bread if she was hungry. But she was often misunderstood. Helen knew she was different from other people. She realized that others didnt use her signs when they wanted something. Helen was growing up lonely and wild because no one knew how to teach her. Some people believed that Helen was just not smart and that her parents ought to put her into an institution for sick people.

But Helens parents knew that her tantrums were the result of a smart child locked in a dark, silent world. They did not know how to help her. In the play Helen was painted as an unruly, spoiled, but very bright child. Captain and Mrs.

Keller tried many times to find help for their daughter, but the answer was always that she would always be blind and deaf and cannot understand others. At last a young teacher, Anne Sullivan, was delegated to the Keller's. Anne Sullivan was only 20. She was a former student of a school for blind and was herself visually impaired.

So, she had experience what blind people feel. Helen did not know that Miss Sullivan had come to teach her. She only knew that a stranger had entered her house and took control of her life. At first, Helen was angry.

Her family had always let her do what she wanted for fear of hurting her. Anne Sullivan described her work with Helen in her correspondence with Sophia Hopkins. She wrote that from the very beginning there were many difficulties. Helen Keller pushed away any attempt to make a compromise with her teacher.

Anne Sullivan had to teach her to do the simplest thing. She taught Helen to comb her hair, wash her hands and button her boots. The teacher wrote that she had to use force sometimes. It was followed with a distressing scene. But Anne understood that the girl should learn to obey her; otherwise there was no use in teaching. With the purpose to maintain the discipline Sullivan asked Helen's father to isolate the girl from the rest of the family.

She lived with her teacher in a little house in the garden. It was the beginning of a long and faithful friendship that had been lasting for 49 years. Later Helen Keller wrote that the most important day in all her life was when her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to her. Anne Sullivan possessed her knowledge about teaching a deaf-blind child at Perkins and later she decided to put them into practice in a more natural way of teaching. Helen Keller and her teacher had their lessons outdoors.

Anne Sullivan understood that children like Helen could learn more with the help of their three remaining senses of touch, smell, and taste. One day Miss Sullivan gave Helen a doll. While the girl was playing with the doll, Miss Sullivan made strange finger signs into Helens palm. Miss Sullivan was teaching Helen how to spell the word doll in the finger alphabet of the deaf. After Miss Sullivan made the signs a few more times, Helen was able to repeat them back to her. She had no idea that she had just learned to spell her first word.

Helen did not yet understand what a word was, or that words were the way people spoke with one another. Miss Sullivan and Helen did many things together. They took walks through the garden and forest. Helen even learned how to knit and bead. For everything Helen did, felt, or smelled, Miss Sullivan made a finger sign in Helens hand. Helen learned to spell quite a few short words in this way.

But still she did not understand that these finger signs were words. The real "miracle" happened one day when Helen was able to make the intellectual connection between the word her teacher spells into her hand and the concrete substance. One day, Miss Sullivan and Helen strolled through the garden and stopped at the water pump. Miss Sullivan put Helens hand under the running water from the pump and formed the signs for water into Helens other hand. She repeated the word water over and over.

Helen felt the finger signs being repeated on her hand, and slowly became aware that those signs meant the cool something that was running over her hand. She understood the first word. Helen began to touch things and demanded to know the words. She learned how to spell them all. She was not repeating meaningless signs anymore; she was learning words. She was understanding language.

Helen was almost ten when she began learning how to speak, even though she had not heard speech since she became ill. Within three weeks, she had learned more than 100 words. Almost at the same time, in 1890, Helen Keller was told the story about Ragnhild Kata. It was a story about a deaf blind Norwegian girl.

The girl learned to speak. Helen was inspired with the story and Miss Sullivan began to teach Helen to speak. She used the Tacoma method (touching the lips and throat of others as they speak). At the same time she combined it with "finger spelling" on the palm of Helen's hand. Later Helen was taught to read English, French, German, Greek, and Latin in Braille. Determined to go to college, Helen entered Radcliffe College in the fall of 1900.

Miss Sullivan attended classes and spelled the lectures into Helens hand. Helen graduated with honors at a time when not many women at all graduated from college. Helen Keller devoted her life to teaching people about the blind. She urged the government to have more books printed in Braille.

She raised money to help the blind. And she wrote books and spoke widely about the special needs of blind and deaf people. The miracle was possible due to the passion and talent of Helens teacher, Anne Sullivan. Annes brilliance and tenacity helped Helen Keller to overcome a traumatic past. The girl became a good example for other blind and deaf people.

Helen Keller's The Story of my Life became one of the most popular stories of the century. Anne Sullivan became known as a pioneer in the field of education. Her works, mostly in letters, became the blueprint for education of children who were blind, deaf-blind, or visually impaired. Annes method was used in America by Sophia Alcorn. The teacher tried and succeeded in teaching deaf-blind boys to speak. The children were taught with touching their teacher's cheek and feeling vocal vibrations.

The problems covered by Anne Sullivan were typical for any blind and deaf child. Her works help future generations of teachers and parents to overcome difficulties. First of all, Anne Sullivan revealed that blind children, if they have a chance, can play and learn like their sighted peers. If a teacher wants to gain success she or he should create a positive attitude, and should have an open mind and creativity. Anne Sullivan, as a successful teacher, possessed knowledge of general child development and instructional techniques appropriate for her students age.

Anne Sullivan was sure and proved that the blind child can learn the same concepts that are taught the other children. But the difference is in the method of learning. The blind child as a rule had to use the other senses more extensively. From the other hand there is another problem that parents and teachers try to create the world to the blind and deaf child.

The parents try to protect their children from the world outside. But it is for sure that all children get bumps and bruises, and should learn to cope with other groups of children. They should learn how to live in the society. Protecting a child from the world will be a crucial stage in her or his development. Teachers and parents should encourage the blind child to join different activities. Scientists say that skinned knees and tears from bumps last a few moments.

The negative effects of sheltering last a lifetime. The third problem, Anne Sullivan pointed, is that young blind children must learn to solve problems themselves. It is known that blind children depend greatly on their parents and teachers. A child should know when to do it himself and when to ask for help. Dependency makes a child naughty. With any undisciplined child, tantrums, abnormal mannerisms, poor socialization, inattention, and delays in learning will quickly follow.

Like any other child, a blind child needs firm but loving discipline so he can learn how to get along in this world. From the early times it was know that the best teacher is one who has taught his students to think and always try to overcome difficulties, who can encourage them and support their desire to know more. Sometimes it is the most important thing then knowledge itself. Bibliography: Anne Sullivan Macy: Miracle Worker.

American Foundation for the Blind, 2006. web Helen Keller In Her Own Words. American Foundation for the Blind, 2003. web The life of Helen Keller. Royal National Institute of the Blind, 17 January, 2007. web The Miracle Worker.

eNotes, 2007. web


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Research essay sample on Helen Keller Miracle Worker

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