LESSON 1

ESSAY STRUCTURE AND THREE DAYS TO SEE

by Helen Keller

Lesson Goals: To identify the parts of an organized paper and paragraph. To gain appreciation and insight into living life with disabilities. Improving test taking ability and performance.

R - rewrite (new information in own words)

E - explain (the connection between the new information and the literary text learned)

E - examples (provide examples from the text that show the connection)

S - summary (restate the connection

Tasks

1) Brainstorm our five senses. What are their role in our lives? If we didn't have one of our senses or even two of them, what would it be like? What sense do you appreciate the most? Attach three describtive words or adjectives to each brainstormed sense.

2) Read the introducing paragraph in green below. Speculate who you think wrote this essay? How old was she? When did you write the essay? Why? What is the main idea? What do youthink this essay will be about? What is the purpose of an introduction?

3) Discuss Topic Sentence/ Main Sentence and describe their roles. Predict where they may be found in a text and use the introduction as an example of where to find the Main Sentence.

4) Study the table above to understand what an introduction, body and conclusion are and where one could predict it could be found in the essay. What is the role of essay parts and why do they exist?

5) Discuss what a Thesis Statement is. What is its purpose? What is it's role? Where may it be found in the text? Locate the Thesis Statement.

6) Fill in the table below. Identify and label using the Essay below.

Three Days to See as published in Atlantic Monthly, (January, 1933)

Transcription
by Helen Keller

Most of us take life for granted. We go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound. Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little.

Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. 'Nothing in particular,' she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.

How would you use your own eyes if you had only three days to see? If with the oncoming darkness you knew that the sun would never rise for you again, how would you spend those three intervening days? What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon? I, naturally, should want most to see the things which have become dear to me through my years of darkness.

On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. First I should like to gaze long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Ann Sullivan Macy, who came to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to me so often. I should look onto the faces of my dear friends, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidence of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby. I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs.

I should also view the small simple things of my home. I want to see the warm colors in the rugs under my feet, the pictures on the walls, the intimate trifles that transform a house into a home. My eyes would rest respectfully on the books in raised type which I have read and those which have been read to me have built themselves into a great shining lighthouse, revealing to me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit.

In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature, trying desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendor which is constantly unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland jaunt my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing in the field and the serene content of men living close to the soil. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset. When dusk had fallen, I should experience the double delight of being able to see by artificial light, which the genius of man has created to extend the power of his sight when Nature decrees darkness.In the night of that first day of sight, I should not be able to sleep, so full would be my mind of the memories of the day.

III

The next day - the second day of sight - I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.

On my second day of sight, I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The whole magnificent world of painting would be opened to me, from the Italian Primitives, with their serene religious devotion, to the Moderns, with their feverish visions. I should look deep into the canvases of Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt. Oh, there is so much rich meaning and beauty in the art of the ages for you who have eyes to see!The evening of my second day of sight I should spend at a theatre or at the movies. If I could see only one play, I should know how to picture in my mind the action of a hundred plays which I have read

The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate. The second revealed to me the history of man and Nature. The final day I should spend in the workday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. And where one can find so many activities and conditions of men as in New York? So the city becomes my destination. Thereafter the touch of every object would bring a glowing memory of how that object looked.

(I am sure that) if you actually faced that fate (blindness) your eyes would open to things you had never seen before, storing up memories for the long night ahead. You would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.

Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf to-morrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.

Previous: Magic in Your Fingers! as published in Home Magazine, (May, 1932)

Author Helen Keller
edited by Marie Liston

The Story of My Life, first published in 1903, is Helen Keller's autobiography detailing her early life, especially her experiences with Anne Sullivan.^[1] Keller first began to write The Story of My Life in 1902, when she was still a student at Radcliffe College. It was first published in the Ladies Home Journal in the same year as a series of installments. The following year, it was published by Doubleday, Page & Co. as a book. The book was well received and Keller wrote two more books, Midstream and My Later Life.^[3]

ESSAY STRUCTURE COMPOSITION
LESSON 2

LESSON GOALS: To apply knowledge learned about essay structure in order to create an outline for an essay. To use knowledge learnt to write a paragraph with paragraph strucuture. To express ideas and opinions. To encourage creativity and improve skills in emotional intelligence. To analyze descriptive themes.

1. If you had only three days to hear/see/smell what would you see/hear/smell? (pick one sense)

2. Create an outline using the table below for a hypothetical essay.