Louis Braille Lessons and Resources KS1
Teaching Louis Braille at KS1 will feature in many schools’ curriculum whether formally through the history curriculum or as part of one of the supported charities.
He may be mentioned in assemblies or he might be part of a broader cross-curricular topic on senses. Either way it clearly offers pupils an insight into the world of those who have lost their sight.
Many schools start this topic by showing what blind people can do better than sighted people to counter the traditional notion of disability. Anyone studying this topic will get great support from organisations across the world.
Planner
| Louis Braille Key Questions | Historical focus |
|---|---|
| KQ1 – Why do you think Louis Braille is remembered today? | Significance and historical enquiry |
| KQ2 – What were the most important moments, and who were the most significant people, in Louis Braille’s life? | Chronology and significance |
| KQ3 – What motivated Louis? Why did he decide to invent a system of writing for the blind? | Motivation and causation |
| KQ4 – What changes to people’s lives did Louis make? | Change and consequence |
| KQ5 – What makes Braille so special? | Significance and evaluation |
| KQ6 – What should go in our Braille museum? | Significance, selection and commemoration |
KS1 Medium Term Planner: Louis Braille
The current history curriculum at KS1 asks schools to provide a little more coherence in their choice of significant people to study, suggesting that they might be linked by theme….
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Louis Braille – KQ1 – Why do you think Louis Braille is remembered today: Smart task
This session comprises two activities. Activity 1 – Pupils try to work out why Braille might be famous from visual clues. Discuss how blind people can read today. They handle…
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Louis Braille – KQ2 – What were the most important moments, and who were the most significant people, in Louis Braille’s life?
This session comprises 3 key activities, so it is important to devote sufficient time to it. Please note that activities 2 and 3 are particularly challenging and were taught to…
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Louis Braille – KQ3 – What motivated Louis? Why did he decide to invent a system of writing for the blind? Smart task
In contrast to the multi-faceted KQ2, these two relatively short activities will not take as long. They focus on Louis’ motivation, principally by means of a diamond-4 prioritising activity. Learning…
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Louis Braille – KQ4 – What changes to people’s lives did Louis make?
Step 1 This is a short activity in which pupils are asked to think of any uses of Braille they know of in everyday life, perhaps by showing the start…
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Louis Braille – KQ5 – What makes Braille so special? Smart task
This very short task is preliminary to the major task that follows in KQ6 which explores how we should commemorate Louis’ achievement. It is important that they consider the crucial…
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Louis Braille – KQ6 – What should go in our Braille museum? Curator’s dilemma
Set the scene When Louis died no national papers covered the story. 100 years later in 1952 his body was moved to the building called the Pantheon in Paris where,…
Read MoreLouis Braille – evaluating the video
This lesson comes at the end of the sequence of lessons which explore Louis Braille’s life and achievements. Rather than using a video for information and atmosphere, this lesson uses…
Read MoreWritten by Neil Thompson
All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.