Level  5 and 6 News

A special visit for the 5 & 6 students.       

Earlier in Term 4, all of the year 5 and 6 students were working on their mentor text Six Dots about Louis Braille written by Jen Bryant. Jen has written many books on Louis before, but this is her first picture book of him. Louis was a young boy when he became blind and he’d always wanted to read, so he decided to come up with a way so that blind people could read. Louis soon found out that a French soldier had come up with a code, but it was only for sound, not alphabet letters or numbers nor punctuation. This gave young Louis the inspiration to create Braille. At the age of fifteen Louis had created something that would change history.

On the 13th of November the level 5/6s had the pleasure of meeting Frank. He is a family member of Mrs Pezzimenti’s family, so we’re very lucky to have this experience.  Frank is blind and was happy to come and share about his life, being blind and how Braille has helped him, with all of the level 5 & 6 students. Frank shared that he went to The Royal Institution For the Blind as a child, where he learnt to read and write; he mentioned that learning to read and write braille takes as long as it does to learn to read and write for us! 

Frank had tools to write with and create Braille that no one in level 5 or 6 had ever seen before. He showed us his typewriter for the blind that only had 9 keys. Frank passed around books for the blind where you had to run your fingers across the page to read, there was a map of Australia and a picture of the human brain. He also showed a slate and a stylus to poke holes in the paper to practise his writing and spelling that he used in primary school and can still use now. He also showed his watch that you use touch to tell the time, not sight. You open the glass lid on the watch to feel the time, 12, 3, 6 and 9 all had 2 dots and 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 all had 1 dot. This was so good to look at. Frank also shared how he studied Law at university and had a long career as a lawyer before he retired. 

All of the students had a great time meeting someone who is blind, connecting it to the book Six Dots and learning about what life can be like being blind. We all thank Frank for coming in to share his story and tell us a few things about his life, showing us tools he uses, and most importantly answering the students' questions.

By Ava & Eva - 508