How to Make a Braille Wave

How to Make a Braille Wave

Future Reflections Fall 1992, Vol. 11 No. 4
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HOW TO MAKE

A BRAILLE WAVE
by Bonnie

Simons

[PICTURE] Students enjoy the challenges of learning Braille and completing projects in Braille.
[PICTURE] Cooperative learning techniques, along with competitions, help sighted students learn the basics of Braille.
From

the Editor: Sighted children are fascinated with Braille. Whenever my blind

colleagues in the Federation or I have demonstrated Braille to groups of children—such

as school classes, Cub Scouts, Brownie Scouts, and so forth—we can always

guarantee, without fail, that the Braille will be a big hit. Many of us have

often wondered if this natural curiosity and enthusiasm for Braille could be

put to a better use. Of course, even one demonstration promotes a better understanding

of blindness and a respect for blind persons, but couldn't more be done? Some

high schools and colleges, for example, offer sign language courses to their

students. Not only does this increase the number of hearing persons who can

communicate with the deaf, but some of these students are undoubtedly inspired

to go on to become professional interpreters for the deaf.
What would

happen if groups of sighted children and youth had the same opportunity to learn

Braille? Would some of them be inspired to go on and become professional or

volunteer Braille transcribers? Would some of them become teachers of blind

and visually impaired children? And even if they never used their Braille skills

in a professional manner, wouldn't there be other kinds of positive results?

Until recently, I could only speculate on what the benefits might be. I knew

individual sighted children who learned Braille—my own sighted daughter,

Anna, began to read and write grade I Braille when she was 5 (she is now 10)—but

had never heard of a group of sighted children learning Braille. That changed

last Spring when the following article appeared on my desk. I no longer had

to speculate. Here was a woman teaching Braille to sighted children in an after-school

Braille club, and the results, as she reports them, were every bit as good as,

or better than, anything I had dreamed possible. I hope that Mrs. Simons's experience,

as she describes it in this article, will inspire others as it inspired me.
This is

a story about a good friend made because of Braille and how I came to be a better

teacher through this friendship.
I first

met Abigail Granger in Joan Kennedy's second-grade classroom at Kiva Elementary

School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Abbe was a sweet, occasionally shy eight-year-old,

with a sharp intellect and keen interest in language. Abbe loved learning. Her

good humor, winning smile and outgoing manner all combined to make her a persuasive

force. Abbe was a natural leader, one who would lead me into an experience I

will never forget. In the space of one year, this young girl would have me committed

body, soul, and pocketbook to teaching Braille to sighted students in first

through sixth grades at our school. You will learn more about other people responsible

for promoting and supporting this project through telling of this story. I believe

that running this class, and letting it run me, has been one of the most enjoyable

experiences of my career.
Abbe's

second-grade teacher had created a remarkable learning environment for the extraordinary

group of children assigned to her that year. I was there to help integrate my

blind student into classroom activities, but it soon became evident that I would

be working with other students as well. They were bright, sensitive, self-assured,

and endlessly curious. The children watched in fascination as I worked with

my student using a variety of Braille and tactile materials. They were spellbound

by the Braille writer, and begged me to teach them how to write their names.

Luckily, their teacher encouraged curiosity, allowing them to explore the tactile

world with us. They thought they left this world behind in preschool when they

exchanged clay, finger painting, button-and-snap books, and blocks for textbooks.

When I brought in my play-dough maps and Braille storybooks with tactile illustrations

of felt, buttons, and beads, I must have struck a homey chord in their second-grade

hearts.
My clearest

memory of the beginning of my interest in teaching Braille to sighted students

was of a warm April afternoon, my Braille writer sitting on a picnic table outside

the school cafeteria. Although I had planned to attend a teachers' meeting,

Abbe persuaded me my presence there wasn't required. She showed me the Braille

writer set up with paper in a sunny, comfortable place, and I was convinced.

A gentle Arizona breeze easily lifted the heavy manila paper that was halfway

out of the Braille writer. On the paper were the names of Abbe's family she

had Brailled with my help. Next, Abbe wanted to learn how to Braille numbers

and capital letters. I loved teaching Braille to blind children and remember

thinking this would be a pleasurable way to end the day, tutoring students like

Abbe in Braille. Abbe had quickly learned the basics of using a Braille writer

and was also very interested in creating tactile designs using Braille dots.

The Braille Wave was one of our favorites, originally tapped out by her four-year-old

sister when she came to visit my resource room. It can be made by Brailling

dots three, two, one, four, five, six across the page, creating a tactile wave.
Abbe persevered

in her goal to learn everything about Braille that she knew about print. We

designed an independent study in Braille with the encouragement of her classroom

teacher. At the close of the school year, Abbe asked if she could continue studying

Braille in third grade. I agreed, on the condition the plan was approved by

her new teacher. That August, Abbe met me in the hall on the first day of school

and introduced two friends who were interested in learning Braille. We decided

it would be fun to have an after-school class for the three of them. That was

the start of it all.
This weekly

class of three students quickly grew into two classes of twelve students thanks

to Abbe's publicity. The Kiva teachers and staff were extremely patient as our

class struggled getting organized. Teachers invited me to their classes to speak

about Braille. I developed cartoon storyboards that helped tell the story of

Louis Braille, explaining the various systems blind people have used before

and since the development of Braille. Students were fascinated by the knotted

string and wooden letter alphabets, as well as the "talking" electronic

Braille keyboard my sixth-grade student used to take notes in class. They stopped

me in hallways to ask me when they could take Braille classes.
Classes

soon turned into everyday, standing-room-only events. I begged and borrowed

Braille writers for our newly named Braille Club. Soon we had twelve in my resource

room. Students came in after school and during their lunch recess to learn Braille.

Approximately 125 students have attended Braille classes over the past two years.

I've bought a gross of notebooks for students to keep their papers and have

watched in amazement as they have decorated them with fabric paints, creating

delightful tactile pictures and designs.
Cooperative

learning techniques were used to teach Braille. My blind Braille students became

student teachers in the Braille club. They, of course, had separate Braille

reading instruction and therefore came to Braille club with advanced skills.

Even the younger blind student teachers (my youngest was Julie, age eight) could

teach basic Braille reading and demonstrate the mechanics of using a Braillewriter.

(Believe it or not, putting paper into a Braillewriter was one of the most difficult

skills for the sighted club members to learn). Older student teachers, such

as sixth-grader, Chris, would teach club members advanced Braille math and science

notations as he learned them in his Braille class with me.
After students

learned the basics, they were asked to come up with ideas for Braille projects.

They have developed some extraordinary ones. They have worn blindfolds and tested

each other to see how many Braille letters they can read with their fingers.

They designed Braille alphabet cards for teachers to give students when reading

about or discussing blindness. They wrote twin vision storybooks—wonderfully

imaginative stories in print and Braille, made using ink stamp sets—for

the teachers of primary age children to keep in their reading centers. They

have copied tactile concept books designed for preschool blind children by a

parent group in California, and donated them to our local preschool for blind

children. A group of older students who are good artists has designed a dictionary

of tactile pictures for Braille storybooks. They have also Brailled the children's

menu for a local fast food restaurant. Lunch recess has become a time for students

who have learned the basics to work on projects or bring their friends to teach

them Braille.
Braille

students love competitions, so children were frequently put in teams to compete

against each other in Braille language games, and a translator's contest was

designed to help students learn Braille contractions. This lively competition

runs in four-week cycles. Students were given sentences containing unknown contractions

and used the context of known letters and words in the sentence to guess them.

Awards were presented to the winners in their classrooms so they could receive

recognition before classmates. The principal has also given certificates of

achievement in Braille at honors assemblies so outstanding successes can be

acknowledged.
The first

year of our Braille Club, before our school's winter holiday, it became evident

that we needed financial support in order for the class to continue. I could

no longer afford to buy supplies, so students were asked to come up with ideas

on how to raise money. Many said their parents would be willing to pay a fee

so they could take the class. We are fortunate to be part of a school community

in which parents are interested in doing everything they can to help blind students

feel that they belong. Children reflected their parents' beliefs when coming

to Braille Club, learning to see beyond external differences when making and

working with friends.
Students

had good ideas for money-raising projects and a strong determination to follow

through on them, so it was decided to try them first. To raise money, the children

decided to create Braille notions to sell at the school's holiday boutique in

December. They worked long hours after school and during lunch to produce Braille

Christmas and Hanukkah cards decorated with tactile pictures of bears, bells,

candles, and Menorahs. They made decorative magnets with names in Braille, and

Braille bookmarks, and then set up a booth, advertising customized items students

would Braille and decorate as a buyer wished. Our first day netted a surprising

$78, enough money to continue Braille Club for the remainder of the school year.

That spring, the Braille Club was featured in an article on mainstreaming in

our local newspaper, and the school's parent group decided to fund us for the

following year, alleviating what could have become a serious financial drain

on my bank account, or more likely, the end of Braille Club.
At this

point, there were as many as 25 students coming in during lunch recess, working

on projects needing supervision. Students were working in teams to make the

campus more accessible to blind people; one team put Braille number labels on

campus doors, while another created a large tactile map of the campus. Abbe

and her friends decided to put together a videotape to introduce new students

to the Braille Club so I wouldn't have to spend time orienting them. The blind

students, Abbe, and two other advanced sighted students became my student teachers,

helping teach Braille basics.
I'm not

able to relate all the activities and outcomes of our club here. What is shared

are some of the moments that gave me the most pleasure in my Braille Club experience.

In particular the uniquely positive effect Braille Club had on the integration

of blind students at Kiva was unexpected and welcome. One day, a student left

a sign on my door: "Braille is cool." I realized then how the school's

attitude toward Braille—and vicariously toward the blind students who use

Braille—had altered over the months. People on campus were no longer ignorant

or shy of Braille but knowledgeable and interested. Students and teachers asked

me questions about Braille and blindness with an ease that amazed me. People

were talking more to the blind students, giving friendly greetings in the halls,

stopping to talk. Blind students who had resisted Braille were now excited about

learning it. Their Braille skills gave them status among their sighted peers.

I began to notice a tremendous increase in confidence, assertiveness, and self-esteem

in my blind Braille students.
In Braille

club, the blind students were involved in everything. Because we were in a relaxed,

cooperative learning situation, several interesting social interactions between

blind and sighted students were observed. Misunderstandings, based on ignorance

of either the sighted or blind student's perspective, were frequently able to

be explained with regard to how the other was thinking or feeling. These explanations

were accepted as help, not criticism, as they might have been in a different

learning environment. We all began to understand one another better, and students

developed satisfying friendships.
These positive

effects became more evident to me when the mother of my youngest blind student

mentioned that her child's new friend had described her by name only to her

mother. It wasn't until she was invited to this friend's party that the mother

learned her child's friend was blind. She was amazed her daughter hadn't told

her this important fact. It didn't surprise me, because I had seen this difference

between the children become unimportant as they got to know each other. In Braille

Club, friendships are formed on the basis of common interests, not physical

differences.
Over the

past year, I have developed Braille learning modules that continue to be used,

modified and supplemented as Braille Club continues. Each day, students come

to me, interested in joining our club, and each day I say "yes" to

their ideas. Students who come to Braille are as diverse as students in any

classroom. They're interested in learning, achieving, laughing and belonging.

Each is welcomed with an open mind and heart. They have given meaning to my

work that didn't exist before, opening my eyes to the endless opportunities

we have to learn from one another. Our endeavor couldn't have flourished as

it did in another environment or under different conditions. So, I thank the

teachers, the office and custodial staff, and the principal for the help and

unconditional support they gave us. I thank our school parent group for their

generosity in funding the club. Other groups, I know, would not have seen the

benefits of this for their children. I also owe thanks to my superviso,r who

gave me an itinerant caseload that didn't require I work many extra hours after

school. This enabled me to sponsor Braille Club, which I believe is the most

successful mainstreaming technique I have used in 18 years of teaching. I owe

a heartfelt thanks to my friend Abbe, who, whether she becomes a Braille teacher

or not, will always remain my friend. She was the original Braille wave in my

life—a welcome, dynamic, tidal wave.
I hope

this may encourage others interested in teaching Braille to sighted students

to try such an endeavor. I recommend it highly as one of the most pleasurable

and exhausting experiences of my life and would be happy to share materials

and resources with other teachers. You can contact me at Kiva Elementary

School, 6911 East McDonald Drive, Scottsdale, Arizona 85253. Just send it

to the attention of "The Braille Teacher." It will reach me.
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