Before Reading
from The
Story of My Life
Video link at
thinkcentral.com
Autobiography by Helen Keller
VIDEO TRAILER
KEYWORD: HML6-832
Do we have to accept
our LIMITS?
RI 4 Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are
used in a text, including figurative
meanings. RI 6 Determine an
author’s point of view and explain
how it is conveyed in the text.
RI 10 Read and comprehend
literary nonfiction.
Sometimes the things we most want to do are the hardest to
accomplish. It can be discouraging to discover our limits and
frustrating to find ourselves facing unexpected challenges. Fortunately,
many serious obstacles can be overcome with creativity and
determination. In this excerpt from The Story of My Life, Helen Keller
describes triumphing over her limitations.
QUICKWRITE Helen Keller found a way to succeed despite being
both blind and deaf. Think of someone else—from your life, a book,
or a movie—who also had to deal with some type of limitation. Write
a brief paragraph describing this person and his or her efforts to
conquer a major difficulty.
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Meet the Author
text analysis: autobiography
The most personal kind of nonfiction writing is
autobiography—a writer’s account of his or her own life.
In biographies, the subject is a person other than the writer.
In autobiographies, the writer is the subject. Autobiographies
• are told from the first-person point of view, using firstperson pronouns (I, me, we, us, our, my, mine)
• include literary language and devices to provide
descriptions of people and events that have influenced
the writer
• share the writer’s personal thoughts and feelings about
his or her experiences
As you read The Story of My Life, think about the information
the author decides to include about herself.
reading strategy: monitor
Monitoring is the process of checking your understanding as
you read. One way to do this is to ask questions about what
you have just read.
As you read Helen Keller’s autobiography, note any passages
that you find confusing. Record them in a chart like the one
shown. Next to each passage, write what you think it means.
Keller’s Words
My Questions
“Anger and bitterness had
preyed upon me” (line 14)
Why is Helen Keller so bitter
and angry?
vocabulary in context
Helen Keller uses the following words to tell how she came
to understand the world around her. To see how many you
know, match each vocabulary word from the Word List with
the numbered word or phrase closest in meaning.
word
list
consciousness
sensation
repentance
tangible
1. not understanding
2. awareness
3. feeling
4. touchable
uncomprehending
5. regret
Helen Keller
1880–1968
Overcoming All Obstacles
Before Helen Keller was two years old,
she developed a fever that left her
blind and deaf. The young girl was
highly intelligent, but her parents did
not know how to communicate with
her properly. Anne Sullivan, a teacher
from the Perkins Institution for the
Blind, became Keller’s tutor.
Lifetime of Learning
Sullivan taught Keller sign language
and Braille, a system of raised dots
that enables blind people to read.
When Keller was ten, she learned
about a blind and deaf child who
had learned to speak by studying the
movements of people’s lips. Keller
was determined to do the same.
She eventually learned to speak
aloud in English, French, and German.
Keller graduated from Radcliffe
College in 1904.
Teaching Others
As an adult, Keller became a
spokesperson for people with
disabilities. She helped stop deaf
and blind people from being placed
in hospitals for the mentally ill. She
also spoke about preventing the
diseases that caused childhood
blindness. In 1964, Keller received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
hat can be given to an
highest honor that
n.
American civilian.
Author
Online
Go to thinkcentral.com.
al.com..
KEYWORD: HML6-833
833
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
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The Story of
My Life
Helen Keller
T
10
he most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which
my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with
wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives
which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before
I was seven years old.
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb,1
expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs and from the
hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to
happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon
sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell
on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the
familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet
southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise
for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks
and a deep languor had succeeded2 this passionate struggle. a
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a
tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and
What can you infer
about the relationship
between Helen Keller
and Anne Sullivan
by looking at this
photograph of them?
a
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Reread lines 6–15.
In what way does the
first-person point of
view help show Keller’s
thoughts and feelings?
tangible (tBnPjE-bEl) adj.
possible to touch; real
1. dumb: unable to speak; mute.
2. deep languor had succeeded: a complete lack of energy had followed.
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20
anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and soundingline,3 and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was
like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass
or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was.
“Light! Give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light
of love shone on me in that very hour. b
I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to
my mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the
arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all
things else, to love me.
b
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
What literary devices
does Keller use in
this paragraph? How
does she describe her
experience of being
blind?
T
30
40
50
he morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave
me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it
and Laura Bridgman4 had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward.
When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my
hand the word “d-o-l-l.” I was at once interested in this finger play and tried
to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was
flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother
I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was
spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers
go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in
this uncomprehending way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup
and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me
several weeks before I understood that everything has a name. c
One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put
my big rag doll into my lap also, spelled “d-o-l-l” and tried to make me
understand that “d-o-l-l” applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had
a tussle over the words “m-u-g” and “w-a-t-e-r.” Miss Sullivan had tried
to impress it upon me that “m-u-g” is mug and that “w-a-t-e-r” is water, but
I persisted in confounding the two. In despair she had dropped the subject
for the time, only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient
at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed5 it upon the
floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll
at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst.
I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was
no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments
to one side of the hearth, and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of
uncomprehending
(OnQkJm-prG-hDnPdGng)
adj. not understanding
c
MONITOR
What does Keller not
understand about the
words she is spelling?
3. plummet and sounding-line: a weighted rope used to measure the depth of water.
4. Perkins Institution . . . Laura Bridgman: The Perkins Institution was a school for the blind, located
in Massachusetts. Laura Bridgman (1829–1889), a student at the Perkins Institution, was the first
deaf and blind child to be successfully educated. Like Keller, Bridgman became quite famous for her
accomplishments.
5. dashed: threw or knocked with sudden violence.
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60
70
80
90
my discomfort was
removed. She brought
me my hat, and I knew
I was going out into the
warm sunshine. This
thought, if a wordless
sensation may be
called a thought, made
me hop and skip with
pleasure.
We walked down
the path to the wellhouse, attracted by
the fragrance of the
This house on the Keller property was where Sullivan often
honeysuckle with
took Helen for lessons.
which it was covered.
Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the
spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other
the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention
fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness
as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the
mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant
the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living
word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers
still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. d
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each
name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every
object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw
everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering
the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth
and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly6 to put them together. Then my
eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time
I felt repentance and sorrow. e
I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they
all were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them—
words that were to make the world blossom for me, “like Aaron’s rod, with
flowers.”7 It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as
I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had
brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come. Compare Helen’s
description of the wellhouse (lines 64–69) to
this photograph of it.
What do you learn from
each source?
sensation (sDn-sAPshEn)
n. a feeling
consciousness
(kJnPshEs-nGs) n.
awareness of one’s own
thoughts
d
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Reread lines 64–78.
Which literary language
in this passage might
not have been included
in a biography?
repentance (rG-pDnPtEns)
n. sorrow or regret
e
MONITOR
Reread lines 79–86.
Why does Keller
suddenly feel sorry
for breaking the doll?
6. vainly: without success.
7. like Aaron’s rod, with flowers: a reference to a story in the Bible in which a wooden staff suddenly
sprouts flowers.
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After Reading
Comprehension
1. Recall How does Helen Keller know that something unusual is happening
on the day Anne Sullivan arrives?
2. Recall What is the first word Sullivan tries to teach Keller?
3. Summarize How does Keller’s world change once she begins to
understand the connection between language and meaning?
RI 4 Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are
used in a text, including figurative
meanings. RI 6 Determine an
author’s point of view and explain
how it is conveyed in the text.
RI 10 Read and comprehend
literary nonfiction.
Text Analysis
4. Monitor Look back at the chart you used to ask questions as you read.
Choose one passage that you found difficult to understand, and explain
what clues helped you answer your questions.
5. Identify Sensory Details Although
Keller lacked the senses of sight and
hearing, she was able to observe many
things using her remaining senses. In
a graphic organizer like the one shown,
record words and phrases that Keller
used to help her readers understand
what she was describing.
Touch
Smell
“the wonderful
cool something”
(line 76)
6. Analyze Autobiography Consider what Keller shares about her
experiences. How would the story of Keller’s life be different if Anne
Sullivan had written it?
7. Evaluate Literary Devices Keller was aware that many of her readers
would never experience the challenge of missing one or more senses.
Reread lines 16–23, focusing on the analogy, or point-by-point comparison,
in which Keller describes herself as a ship lost in the fog. Is this an
effective way for her to share her feelings? Explain.
Extension and Challenge
8. Inquiry and Research In the 1800s, blind and deaf people had few
resources. Many were confined to hospitals. Fortunately, this is no longer
the case. Research two or three of the technological advances that now
help people overcome their physical limits. Share your discoveries with
the class.
Do we have to accept our LIMITS?
How was Helen Keller able to overcome her disabilities?
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Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice
Complete each sentence using the appropriate vocabulary word.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
After the ride ended, he still had the ______ of being upside-down.
Her happiness was ______, like a warm blanket wrapped around her.
The teacher looked at him in a(n) _______ way, so he repeated himself.
A feeling of ______ is natural after you do something hurtful or wrong.
When I hit my head, I lost ______ and my mind went blank.
consciousness
repentance
sensation
tangible
uncomprehending
academic vocabulary in writing
• achieve
• appreciate
• characteristics
• conclude
• obvious
Which of Helen Keller’s characteristics helped her overcome her limits? What
can you conclude about Keller based on what she has achieved? Use at least
two Academic Vocabulary words in your discussion.
vocabulary strategy: analogies
An analogy is a kind of word puzzle. You are given two words and can
complete the analogy by identifying another pair of words with a similar
relationship. You may be asked to complete analogies that describe a whole
to part relationship. Here is an example of such an analogy.
L 5b Use the relationship
between particular words to
better understand each of the
words. L 6 Acquire and use
accurately academic words.
foot : toe :: ____ : finger
Consider that something whole consists of more than one part. A foot is
made up of toes, so the correct answer is hand, which is made up of fingers.
You may also be asked to complete analogies that describe a part to whole
relationship. Here’s is an example.
petal : flower :: ____ : tree
A petal is a part of a flower, so the correct answer is branch which is a part of
a tree.
PRACTICE First, determine whether each analogy describes a part to whole
or whole to part relationship. Then, complete each analogy.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
beach : sand :: lawn : ____
continent : country :: ____ : city
corn : cob :: ____ : pod
article : newspaper :: chapter :: ____
letter : word :: word : ____
Interactive
Vocabulary
Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML6-839
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