The movie “The Freedom Writers” is based on the true story of Erin Gruwell’s English classes at Wilson High, an integrated school with students of all racial and cultural backgrounds. As a new teacher she is given the lowest achieving students. For safety and belonging most of these students belong to racial gangs and bring this social concept into the class by sitting in racial arrangements. Their morals and self concept are defined by these gangs, as shown by Eva’s statement of “we protect our own” and Andre’s comment about how his brother taught him to do anything it takes to survive. They have the ability to learn, but they do not see how school based knowledge fits their world. These kids are given negative labels like losers and …show more content…
and gives them journals to record their thoughts and experiences. These are effective because they provide situational interest and change up the equilibrium. The game provides a visual and active situation while the notebooks show her commitment to them and interest in their stories. Because they will not be graded the students have the choice to write anything and express themselves in any format they choose. Gruwell wants to read them, but shows respect for the students by only reading them if given permission.
After creating the foundation of trust and community in the classroom they go on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance and Gruwell arranges for Holocaust survivors to have dinner with them and talk about their experiences. This builds on the knowledge from the museum and allows the students to see the impact intolerance, hatred, and violence on someone outside their own circle. Vygotsky would view this as scaffolding to develop the background for the reading of The Diary of Anne Frank which is the next book Gruwell gives her students. Marcus is so strongly affected by The Diary of Anne Frank he suggests Gruwell writes to Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank from the Nazis. She changes her assignment from an essay to a letter to Miep Gies, but makes no promises about getting the letters delivered. This results in a student lead initiative for Miep Gies to speak to them. By “giving in” to the students Gruwell
The movie “Freedom Writers” is based on a true story. Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell plays an inspirational teacher at Wilson High School. She is ready to take on the teaching world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day. Her class, varied with teenagers of different ethnic backgrounds, wants nothing more than to just get through the day. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, gang members, and much more are from poor neighborhoods, that all share a similar hatred for each other. On the first day of teaching she is very scared and unsure, but she knows she has to stop the racism in the class as well as their attitude towards life. Despite her students' persistent refusal to participate
Gruwell taught her class about the Holocaust, the genocide of Jews. While learning about this major event in class the students were able to see how another person’s hatred affected someone’s life. They saw that many of the victims did not survive and were killed simply because of their race. This drew a parallel for the students to see how their hatred and violence against each other was senseless. In the same way Hitler killed Jews because of their race, they were killing each other. From learning about the Holocaust the students were able to step outside from their own personal norms, and examine a situation from a new or different
Even, when the students seem careless and do not tolerate the professor, Gruwell guided by her ideals and big heart refuses to allow her students to be incompetent and gave her students a chance to overcome the limitations imposed on them by society and themselves. She encouraged them to do something remarkable and memorable and assign them a journal where they could feel free to express their emotions and feeling and essentially tell the stories that define them. Gruwell draws students’ attention by assigning them The Diary of Anne Frank, a book that promptly become a guide for the students and open their minds and eyes against intolerance and misunderstanding. Inspired by this book, the students raised funds to bring Miep Gies, the woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California where she declared that the students are the real heroes.
In the 1920s, when movies were a brand new concept, people went to see the pictures in order to escape from their lives. In these movies, everything worked out in the end and they depicted happy, perfect lives. As the Depression raged on, movies were a distraction from the wear and tear of normal life. With the movie Freedom Writers, however, that is not the case. Freedom Writers tells the impossibly true story of a first-year teacher, Erin Gruwell, and the difficulties she faced in her classroom of supposed hopeless cases. In Long Beach, California, her students dealt with gang violence, drugs, and racism in their everyday lives. They lived in constant fear. The movie emphasizes how Gruwell wrestles with the public school system, motivates her students to learn, and changes their lives in the process. Directed by Richard LaGravenese, it came out in 2007 with stars such as Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, and April Hernandez gracing the screen (IMDb). In contrast to the early movies, Freedom Writers deals with issues that are still a problem today, such as a focus on the majority instead of helping students who need extra assistance or encouragement.
After they raise the money to bring her over, she tells them her experiences hiding Anne Frank. When Marcus tells her that she is his hero, she denies it, claiming she was merely doing the right thing. Her denial causes Eva to rethink lying during her testimony. When she testifies, she finally breaks down and tells the truth, much to some of her family members' dismay. Meanwhile, Gruwell asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary.
In the Freedom Writers there were challenges that they had to overcome including the inequalities of students at Wilson High School. These inequalities ranged from skin color, background, grades, and age. We try to keep this from happening at OHS, but it can come out in some ways even here. This isn’t what we want to happen since it divides us as students and as a school, but it is almost impossible to keep from happening especially at a school as large as OHS.
In chapter, five there are several points. However the biggest points are if the colonists should be independent from Britain, the colonists reaction to the laws and acts made by the British Empire, and the rights of the colonists. These points summarize the contents of chapter five of “Voices of Freedom” and “Give Me Liberty”. The articles in voices of freedom that are arguing the primary points the first article is the “Virginia Resolutions on the Stamp Act (1765)”. This article is about Virginia’s House of Burgesses making resolutions to defend their liberty they decided to approve four of these resolutions and rejected three. The next article is “New York Workingmen Demand a Voice in the Revolutionary Struggle (1770)”. This article is
She thought that it was the right thing to do. yes, because it was the honest thing to do. her friends are mad at her because she could have lied and their buddy wouldn’t have gone to prison. And her dad doesn’t even want to talk to her.
In the movie, The Freedom Writers Mrs. Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank) plays a role of a dedicated teacher who did all she could, to help her students learn to respect themselves and each other. She has little idea of what she's getting into when she volunteers to be an English teacher at a newly integrated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students were divided along racial lines and had few aspirations beyond basic survival. Mrs. Gruwell was faced with a big challenge when a group of freshmen students showed her nothing but disrespect which made it hard for her to communicate, teach and understand them. However, Erin Gruwell was determined that no matter the cost she would teach her students not only
The non-fiction film “freedom writers” conveys idea about gang violence through the author’s use of setting and characterisation. Room 203 at Wilson high school, long beach, California in 1994, is the embitter battle ground where the students rebel against the educational system that is failing them and each other.
The film “Freedom Writers” is a film produced in 2007 and directed by Richard LaGravenese. The film is based on a book which was written by Erin Gruwell, who was a teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Eastside, Long Beach, California. The book was first published in 1999.
The film Freedom Writers directed by Richard La Gravenese is an American film based on the story of a dedicated and idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell, who inspires and teaches her class of belligerent students that there is hope for a life outside gang violence and death. Through unconventional teaching methods and devotion, Erin eventually teaches her pupils to appreciate and desire a proper education. The film itself inquiries into several concepts regarding significant and polemical matters, such as: acceptance, racial conflict, bravery, trust and respect. Perhaps one of the more concentrated concepts of the film, which is not listed above, is the importance and worth of education. This notion is
Freedom Writers kicks off with its opening scene depicting the depths of ethnic stereotypes. It films a young Hispanic female, Eva, looking at a white barbie who has “grace and beauty” and then sees a doll of an Hispanic (Aztec) girl who “is not equal in beauty and blessings.”(Freedom Writers) But the blatant demonstration of prejudice doesn’t stop there…when Gruwell is talking with the department chair, Margaret Campbell, she compliments her pearl necklace and says “I wouldn’t wear that to class.”(Campbell) This comment is an example of prejudice against the minorities and reinforces the stereotype of people of color as “thieves.” Another example where stereotypes and discrimination are addressed is when Mrs. Gruwell wants to introduce Romeo and Juliet to her class but Mrs. Campbell declines her request to rent books for her students because she believes they don’t have the necessary skills to read and comprehend it—believing that these students are incapable of learning is
The thorough presentation of a well researched context in the film provided the environment for priming the viewers on the concept of belonging which was highlighted in the film. This grounded the film and prepared the viewers on the film’s main focus. Through the brief but meaningful snippets of what happened during the trial of Rodney King, the viewers were introduced to the conflict used in the film that surfaced and distinctly placed attention on the concept of belonging.
In the beginning of the movie Freedom Writers, Ms. Gruwell’s students have trouble communicated with each other. This is because the characters are unwilling to associate with anyone outside their ethnic/racial groups. There could be multiple reasons to why the students would act this way but one of the main reasons is that they have been taught since birth that people will judge them based on their race or ethnicity. Because of this they have always been separate and grew up to be defensive and aggressive and they choose their groups or “gangs” who are within their racial groups. These “friends” also influence why the students are so afraid to associate with anyone outside that group by threatening to hurt them or beat them up. While with