Shelby's+book+report+(March)

Name: Date: Reading Mr. Jacobson

=Biography of a Famous Woman=


 * Directions: Each section must be 1 paragraph!**

I chose to research Laura Bridgman. I chose to do Laura Bridgman because our teacher said we can't do Helen Keller. I think Laura Bridgman is more important than Helen Keller because she only had one of her senses. Also because she accomplished more. Laura Bridgman went to Perkins School for the Blind. Samuel Gridley Howe was one of Laura's teacher before he got married. She then got to a certain age where she did not need a teacher.

__This famous women was born__ on December 21, 1829. That was when Harmony Bridgman gave birth to a very special girl named Laura Bridgman. She was very pretty but her arms and legs jerked the doctors called that "fits". The problem made Laura very weak. Her parents worried that the problem would damage her or even kill her! But soon she caught and illness called plague. The illness was so bad that it destroyed her smell,hear,see,and taste. Now the only sense she had was touch and Laura used it in many different ways.

__Her early years were spent__ touching. Laura touched everything she touched the barn and around her house. She could almost see where she was because she memorized her house by touch. Laura knew if she did something bad because she could feel the vibrations of feet. She once put her cat in the fire! Laura knew that the fire was warm but not that it could burn. She knew that something was wrong because the vibrations were very scattered. But when Laura was older she accomplished much more than just throwing her cat into the fire.

__Her later years were spent__ at Perkins School for the Blind. She had Miss Drew because Howe had gotten married. It was a law that you can not work after you are married. But she did not have Miss Drew for very long because she got married. Laura then had no body because Howe could not find any one at the moment. But soon Laura had Miss Swift before she got married but by that time Laura did not need any one. Howe had taught her to use braille and people around the world came to watch her do things with it.

__Her accomplishments include__ using braille, using a pasteboard device, and being able to read a raised lettered book. People from all over came to see what Howe and other teachers had taught her. They were amazed. Laura tried to teach other kids but she got bored because they were to slow. She is not as famous as Helen Keller. But Laura Bridgman did something greater than Helen Keller. That was to show that things that seemed impossible were possible.