UNIT

6 INTRODUCTION

LAUNCH TEXT | NONFICTION NARRATIVE

This selection is an example of

a nonfiction narrative, a type of
writing in which an author tells
a true story. This is the type of
writing you will develop in the
Performance-Based Assessment at
the end of the unit.
As you read, think about how the
writer communicates information.
Mark the text to help you answer
the question: How does the
writer help the reader understand
the sequence of events and the

Just Six Dots

complexity of the topic?

The Story of Braille

NOTES
1

A system of just six raised dots can tell any story. Six dots can spin
out tales of romance or relate accounts of historic events. They
can even tell the story of the man who invented them: Louis Braille.
2 As a young boy, Louis loved to observe his father, a leather worker,
in his workshop near Paris. Louis would gaze with eager attention
as Simon-René Braille transformed unfinished leather into fine
harnesses for horses. One day when he was three, Louis grabbed an
awl and a strip of leather. He jabbed the sharp tool down, hoping to
copy his father’s masterful movements and punch the strip with a
perfect hole. Instead, the awl slipped and pierced his right eye. The
Iinjury and resulting infection left Louis completely blind by the age
of five.
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3 Simon-René was determined not to let Louis’s blindness end
his education. Returning to the workshop, he pounded nails into
wooden strips, arranging them to form letters. Soon, Louis attended
the local school, where he excelled. However, his parents realized that
he needed specialized instruction to truly succeed. At the age of ten,
Louis went to Paris to study at the world’s only school for the blind.
4 There, Louis met the founder of the school, Valentin Haüy, a
sighted man who was deeply committed to educating the blind.
Recognizing the importance of independence in learning, he
developed a new way of printing books with thickly embossed
letters. The system worked, but the books were heavy and slow to
read. On top of that, it took both sight and skill to make them.
5 When Louis was eleven, army captain Charles Barbier visited the
school. He had devised a different system, which he called “night

660 UNIT 6 • BLINDNESS AND SIGHT

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What does it mean to see?

writing,” that allowed soldiers to read orders in the dark. It used

raised dots in sets of twelve. Barbier’s code inspired Louis to create NOTES

his own, easier and faster system.

6 Louis worked on his code for years. By the time he was fifteen, he
had perfected the code that would bear his name. Unlike Barbier’s
code, braille uses cells of just six dots. By arranging six dots in
two parallel rows with three dots in each, he created a cell that
can be instantly sensed by one fingertip. With sixty-four possible
combinations of dots, each cell names a letter, number, punctuation
mark, or word.
7 The director of Louis’s school was so impressed with the invention
that he encouraged all of the students to learn it. Louis published the
first braille book in 1829. Blind students could now read with ease.
They could also write, using a pointed tool called a dot stylus.
8 However, braille did not gain wider acceptance right away. The
school’s next director, Pierre-Armand Dufau, was opposed to braille
code. He worried that once blind people could read there would
be no need for sighted teachers, so he banned the use of braille.
Dufau’s assistant, Joseph Gaudet, did not agree. After many years, he
convinced Dufau to accept Braille’s system. They decided to introduce
the new invention when the school moved into a new building.
9 At the dedication ceremony on February 22, 1844, Gaudet read
aloud a 15-page book that told the crowd about Louis Braille’s
accomplishment. Then, he sent one student out of the room and
asked another to use the code to write down a poem. The first
student came back into the room and read the poem perfectly. The
crowd was amazed, and some suspected a trick. One man guessed
that the first student had memorized the poem before the ceremony.
He took a theater ticket out of his pocket and challenged the students
to repeat the demonstration with information from that paper. When
they performed the task one more time, even he was convinced.
10 On that day, the world accepted what Louis Braille already knew:
Just six raised dots can contain the passion and power of language. ❧
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! WORD NETWORK FOR BLINDNESS AND SIGHT

Vocabulary A Word Network is a

collection of words related to a topic.
As you read the selections in this unit,
identify interesting words related to sensed
the ideas of blindness and sight, and
add them to your Word Network. For
example, you might begin by adding observe BLINDNESS
words from the Launch Text such as AND SIGHT
sensed, observe, and gaze. Continue to
add words as you complete this unit. gaze

Tool Kit
Word Network Model

Just Six Dots 661

UNIT
6 INTRODUCTION

Summary
Write a summary of “Just Six Dots.” A summary is a concise, complete, and
accurate overview of a text. It should not include a statement of your opinion
or an analysis.

Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille got blind by the age of 5, when he tried to copy his father's
mastery with leather but instead an awl slipped and pierced his right eye, which infected his left
resulting in complete blindness. Renouncing to give up, at the age of ten, he went to the only school
for blind people in Paris. In that same school, he knew Charles Barbier, the man who invented the
"night writing" system, which consisted in raised dots in sets of twelve. That inspired Louis to create
his own system to ease the actual one, which he accomplished at the age of fteen and consisted of
just six dots: two parallel rows with three dots in each. The director of the school by the time was so
proud of it, the opposite of the one that will come next (Pierre-Armand Dufau), which opposed to it.
The assistant of the director after many years convinced Rufay to use it and it was accepted
worldwide after varios demonstrations of its functionality.

A blind, Louis Braille invented Braille when he tried to ease the

education system for this people. One opposed to it, but when he
saw its ease, it was accepted worldwide.

Launch Activity
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Conduct a Four-Corner Debate Consider this statement: Seeing
is believing.
Record your position on the statement, and explain your thinking.
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Form a group of like-minded students in one corner of the classroom.

Discuss questions such as “What details from the text or your own
experience lead you to take this position?”
After your discussion, have a representative deliver a two- to
three-minute summary of your group’s position.
After all groups have presented, move into the four corners again. If you
change your corner, be prepared to explain why.

662
 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What does it mean to see?

QuickWrite
Consider class discussions, presentations, the video, and the Launch Text as
you think about the prompt. Record your first thoughts here.
PROMPT: Is there a difference between seeing and knowing?

! EVIDENCE LOG FOR BLINDNESS AND SIGHT

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Review your QuickWrite.

Title of Text: Date:
Summarize your thoughts in
one sentence to record in your CONNECTION TO PROMPT TEXT EVIDENCE/DETAILS ADDITIONAL NOTES/IDEAS
Evidence Log. Then, record textual
details or evidence from “Just Six
Dots” that support your thinking.
Prepare for the Performance-Based
Assessment at the end of the unit
by completing the Evidence Log How does this text change or add to my thinking? Date:
after each selection.

Tool Kit
Evidence Log Model

Unit Introduction 663