Louis Braille museum
Educational file
Musée Louis Braille
13 rue Louis Braille
77700 COUPVRAY
Tél/fax : 01 60 04 82 80
musee.louisbraille@orange.fr
SUMMARY
reated for teachers to facilitate their visit to the Louis Braille Museum, this file includes:
A presentation of the museum ………………………………………………………………………… page 1
A map of the museum ………………………………………………………………………....………… page 2
A presentation of the museum visit room by room .........................…………. Page 3 to 4
The different workshops offered ……………………………………………………………… page 5 to 7
A chronological reminder ……….………………………………………………………………………. page 8
The model of the birthplace of Louis Braille ……………………………………………….......page 9
A discovery survey course (questions and games in the appendix) ........ pages 10 to 13
Documentary sources to be used in class on visual impairment ……........ page 14 to 15
Practical information ………………………………………………………………...........… page 16 to 17
Where is The Louis Braille Museum in Coupvray?
Why introduce the Louis Braille museum to children ?
The activity and daily life of a Briard family
Through the Maison Natale by Louis Braille, a true witness architecture, we can recreate the daily life of a village in the 18th-19th century. There is an emotional relationship between Louis Braille, his family and Coupvray.
To revive these disappeared village activities, these ancient customs, the Braille Museum presents, a varied set of objects and furnishings, very revealing of another way of living.
In the common room, we discover certain objects from the period:
The organization of daily life: the bread oven, the cheese loaf, the sink, ...
The wedding, the bridal bouquet.
The adornment, the clothing of a young Briarde, the headdresses, the scarves.
Furnishings, buffet and dining table.
The decor of the table, the dishes, the glasses, the pots,
As well as in the saddler's workshop of Father Simon-René Braille:
We find in this workshop some of the equipment and furniture, used by a saddler for the exercise of his profession (from father to son):
The wooden workbench, very marked by long use; the typical chair with its seat made of leather straps.
The collar former. It allowed to give the shape to the collar, according to the neck of the horse.
The sewing pliers, which the harness maker held, clamped between his legs, to hold the leather.
Saddlery tools (paring knives, awls, upholstery, templates, etc.)…
Children thus become aware of the craft work of the time but also of the hardness of the work. It is also in this workshop that we trace the accident of Louis Braille.
Louis Braille and the invention of his writing and reading system
Louis Braille’s story can touch all audiences, but especially children because it was at the age of 5 that Louis Braille lost his sight.
And at 15, he already creates his own alphabet: he uses 6 raised dots in each square. For each letter, he places the points differently. Here is an example below:
By touching these points, a blind person can identify each point representing the letters. Since then, Louis Braille has been recognized as one of the most important inventors.
Braille was thus created in 1824 but it took more than 20 years for it to be accepted by clairvoyants in France.
In Louis Braille’s former bedroom, there are various embossed writing books, Braille tablets and Braille typewriters to explain the evolution of Braille writing to the present day.
Today, braille is universal. It is modern enough to adapt brilliantly to new technologies.
It is important within the visit, to make children aware that thanks to Braille, blind people can finally access knowledge and culture. We thus evoke the importance of NICT and information technology, which have made it possible to develop tools adapted to the blind: speaking watches, telephone with voice control, Braille printers, ...
Introduction to Braille
The braille initiation workshop aims to discover what braille is, to give the basics of the alphabet and, thanks to the visit, to make a comparison with what has been seen or will be seen at museum, related to the Braille tablet for example or the Braille typewriter.
This workshop allows in particular to "play down" the visual handicap by showing that a blind person can live "like everyone" with some adaptations.
This practice makes it possible to clearly explain the fundamental principles of Braille and to remember that it is an alphabetical writing: a Braille character for a letter.
At the end of the workshop, each child is invited to write his first name in Braille .
Educational material :
A braille alphabet with the correspondence in the "black" alphabet (this is how the printed writing is designated)
A braille tablet with a punch
Adapted sheets (120 grams).
Sensory workshops
Learning to citizenship inevitably requires respect and understanding of the other. These workshops will be an opportunity to discover, better know and better understand people with visual disabilities.
Raising awareness among young people is essential because it is from a very young age that prejudices are built. Working on these stereotypes, social and family, from childhood is the best chance for prejudice to be erased more quickly.
The objective of these workshops is to help remove stereotypical images and change the way children look at the visual impairment. It is also to advocate tolerance, good citizenship, learn to live with difference, to control his fear of the other and learn and experience solidarity. Thus, children will participate in workshops on the senses with blindfolds , in order to understand how blind people manage to develop other senses, without sight.
The touch
Children will have to recognize different materials and shapes:
- Aluminum foil and cotton
- Wood shapes and cardboard boxes (animals, letters and geometric shapes)