Open to Suggestion

Source: Journal of Reading, Vol. 16, No. 5 (Feb., 1973), p. 401

Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40032657 .
Accessed: 18/06/2014 01:57

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wiley and International Reading Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Journal of Reading.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.49 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:57:24 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Open ^H1
to HU
Suggestion
Unlocking a Miracle
• For the past several years I have
had my seventh grade classes involved
in the study of The Miracle Worker
blinded and mute during the length of
the class periods needed for analysis
of the play. The entire experience us-
ually takes two to three weeks, during
which time a variety of activities takes
place in and out of the classroom.
On the first day the students line
up outside the room and are presented
with blindfolds. They are instructed
that from this moment on, for the
period of one week, they will neither
see nor speak during the class period.
The first step for the "Helen Kellers"
is to find their seats. Then an orienta-
tion period follows - attempts at find-
ing various checkpoints in the room.
During this time the patience and en-
couragement of the teacher is critical,
as it will be essential during the length
of the experience. I have insisted that
an atmosphere of normalcy prevail.
After determining guidelines for
traffic, and classroom procedure, the
pencils, opening windows, using the
hall pass, responding to discussion, I
have found that the independent na-
ture of youngsters soon asserts it-
self, and there must be gentle deter-
mination of the teacher to guide this
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.49 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:57:24 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
toward a disciplined awareness of their
own rather marvelous ingenuity.
Some of the activities performed
during that first week have included:
practice with the Braille alphabet,
learning the hand language used in the
play, using various materials to create
a greeting card, eating and drinking,
and cleaning utensils, listening to let-
ters printed on the board to pick out
by sound what was written, enacting
the fight scene to understand how it
would feel to try to get away from a
sighted person, modeling animals in
clay, playing darts by direction, and
reacting to the world of nature on
walks around the school.
During the second week the stu-
dents "regain" the ability to speak.
Class discussions of the characters in
The Miracle Worker, their reactions to
their handicap and the discoveries they
have made about themselves and their
world are usually the general activities
for the week. During this week also,
I slip the blindfold off each student in
turn to allow him to discover how the
others look and act during their handi-
caps. A great deal of perceptive
analysis has come out of this part
of the experience.
The third week begins with dividing
the class into two groups. One re-
mains blind and mute, the "Helens".
The other group regains both their eye-
sight and their speech and begin their
role as teachers, the "Annres". Activ-
ities during this time are designed to
test the powers of description and
communication of the "teachers".
They are totally responsible for the
academic and social well-being of the
"students". The hand language learn-
ed during the first week is employed
by the pairs. The room was kept as
much as possible in a "deaf" atmos-
phere. All of my instructions to the
teachers are written on Dittoes or on
the board. At the end of this week,
the class is taken to a completely
alien environment, in our case a near-
by park. Here the teacher-student
is experienced to the fullest. We stay
at the park for an entire morning, dis-
covering the various apparatus, the na-
ture walk, and the zoo.
The overall assignment for the
classes is, besides reading the play,
keeping a diary. These diaries are col-
lected and shared. Their revelations
have always been the transition from
ignorance of the problems of the
401