One year for International Women's Day, I chose to talk about Helen Keller, since she and I share the same hometown. Helen Keller is a prominent female figure in U.S. history. Most notably, she was the first deaf-blind person to have earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
For this activity with intermediate students, I first showed them a picture of a statue depicting the famous scene of Ann Sullivan and Helen Keller when she learned the word "water." I asked students to describe the picture and guess the significance. I wrote their ideas on the board. Next, I showed the students the title of a video about Helen Keller that I would later show. The title is “Helen Keller - Deafblind Author & Activist,” and I asked students to predict what the video would be based on the title. Below is the video:
Before the first viewing, I had students write the following key words and phrases in their notebooks:
•1880 •Ann Sullivan •Water •Age 10 •Age 24 •The Miracle Worker
I instructed students to watch the video and take notes on the significance of these words/phrases. After the first viewing, we reviewed the answers. Furthermore, we revisited the picture of the statue and compared their ideas with the explanation in the video.
Before the second viewing, I handed the students a worksheet I prepared of two exercises related to some important vocabulary from the video for students to learn. The students may have a couple of minutes to look over the worksheet and answer any that they may already know. During the second viewing, students completed the first exercise by listening for the exact sentences spoken during the video and then filling in the gap as they heard the correct answers. A third viewing could be necessary if students aren't able to complete all of the sentences. Then, we reviewed the answers to the first exercise.
After that, I asked students to complete the second exercise by matching the words with their definitions. I instructed students to use the first exercise to help them because the first exercise contains example sentences with the vocabulary. The context helps them to figure out the definitions. A few minutes later, we reviewed the answers.
Below are worksheet and the slideshow I used for the pre-viewing activities:
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