Her students see parallels between the books and their own lives. When she is met with uncomprehending stares because few of her "unteachable" at-risk students know about the Holocaust, Gruwell uses Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo to teach her students about intolerance. During one class, she intercepts a note containing a racist caricature, which she compares to Nazi propaganda. Buy this book Summary of The Freedom Writers DiaryĮrin Gruwell is a first-year English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. And if the retail value of your order is at least $2,500, you'll save 35% on all your paperbacks. If the retail value of your order is at least $500, you'll save 30%. You'll always save at least 25% on any paperback you order. Reading those books alongside The Freedom Writers Diary can also prompt class discussion on violence and race in America. Your class can also read the same books that Gruwell's students did, which will help your class see how Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary could have such a profound effect. This activity will allow students to hone their creative writing skills and gain a better understanding of their fellow classmates' lives. While reading this book, your class can create its own freedom writers diary by having students keep journals or anonymously post entries into a group computer file. The entries contain difficult subject matter, but are about the actual experiences of high schoolers and can be used to discuss these controversial topics in a healthy manner. The format of anonymous journal entries will probably be unfamiliar to your students, and you should have a class discussion on how the anonymity contributes to or detracts from the book's message. The book is made up entirely of their journals, which were written with encouragement from their teacher Erin Gruwell. If you work with middle school students, consider assigning readings from Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl or Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo next year and have students write diary entries reflecting on current events in their worlds.The Freedom Writers Diary is a moving account from students in a high school class in Long Beach, California. Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic.Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.Here's a list of books that made a positive impact on the Freedom Writers' lives. (Side note: All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and went on to college.) Reading List Also, 100 percent of the royalties from the book are used for the Freedom Writers' college tuition. It all seems a bit too easy at times, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Gruwell, however, especially about the challenges she experienced along the way as her students went from being at-risk to shining stars. The Freedom Writers' stories are inspirational. to visit they win the Spirit of Anne Frank award and travel to New York City to be interviewed by Connie Chung. Secretary of Education Riley they bring Zlata, whose story touches them, to L.A. Gruwell's classes, the teens become change agents in their community and beyond. The students find hope for their own lives as they learn about other teenagers who have experienced tragedy and hardship. He talks about looking out for guns and gang warfare in his neighborhood and about the friends he's lost. One teenager writes a letter to Zlata and compares the war she lived through in Bosnia to the “undeclared war” in America. She decides to teach a curriculum of tolerance using books such as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo.Īs the students start to keep their own journals, they find parallels between the characters' lives and their own. Their English teacher, Erin Gruwell, discovers that her at-risk students have never heard of the Holocaust. This book is a compilation of diary entries from 150 high school students in Long Beach, California, who call themselves the Freedom Writers.
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