freedom writers assignment

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A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school. A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school. A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school.

• Richard LaGravenese
• Erin Gruwell
• Hilary Swank
• Imelda Staunton
• Patrick Dempsey
• 302 User reviews
• 82 Critic reviews
• 64 Metascore
• 2 wins & 1 nomination

• Margaret Campbell

• Scott Casey

• Steve Gruwell

• Eva Benitez
• (as April Lee Hernandez)

• Andre Bryant

• Gloria Munez
• Alejandro Santiago

• Brandy Ross

• Ben Daniels

• Brian Gelford

• Dr. Carl Cohn
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• Trivia At the hotel dinner for the kids after their trip to the Holocaust museum, all of the Holocaust survivor characters are played by actual Holocaust survivors.
• Goofs The scene where Miep Gies tells the day Anne Frank was captured was told with some factual errors. Gies never went back to her house that very day to get bribery materials.

Erin Gruwell : The evaluation assignment was to grade yourself on the work you're doing. You gave yourself an F. What's that about?

Andre : It's what I feel I deserve, that's all.

Erin Gruwell : Oh really?

Erin Gruwell : You know what this is? This is a Fuck You to me and everyone in this class. I don't want excuses. I know what you're up against. We're all of us up against something. So you better make up your mind, because until you have the balls to look me straight in the eye and tell me this is all you deserve, I am not letting you fail. Even if that means coming to your house every night until you finish the work. I see who you are. Do you understand me? I can see you. And you are not failing.

• Connections Featured in Common Feat. Will.i.am: A Dream (2006)
• Soundtracks When The Shit Goes Down by DJ Muggs (as Larry E. Muggerud), Lawrence Dickens & B-Real (as Louis M. Freese) Performed by Cypress Hill Courtesy of Columbia Records By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment Contains a sample of "Deep Gully" by Lawrence Dickens Performed by The Outlaw Blues Band Courtesy of Geffen Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

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• Nov 29, 2006
• How long is Freedom Writers? Powered by Alexa
• January 5, 2007 (United States)
• United States
• Những Nhà Văn Tự Do
• Hamilton High School, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Paramount Pictures
• Double Feature Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $21,000,000 (estimated)
• $36,605,602
• Jan 7, 2007
• $43,095,175

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• Runtime 2 hours 3 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Freedom Writers Diary

Erin gruwell, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Erin Gruwell's The Freedom Writers Diary . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Freedom Writers Diary: Introduction

The freedom writers diary: plot summary, the freedom writers diary: detailed summary & analysis, the freedom writers diary: themes, the freedom writers diary: quotes, the freedom writers diary: characters, the freedom writers diary: symbols, brief biography of erin gruwell.

Historical Context of The Freedom Writers Diary

Other books related to the freedom writers diary.

• Full Title: The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them
• When Written: 1994-1998
• Where Written: Long Beach, California
• When Published: September 1, 1999
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Non-fiction, autobiography
• Setting: Long Beach, California
• Climax: Ms. Gruwell’s students choose to call themselves “Freedom Writers”
• Antagonist: Racism; intolerance; violence; the uncaring, unsupportive adults in many students’ lives
• Point of View: First-person (Ms. Gruwell and the Freedom Writers)

Extra Credit for The Freedom Writers Diary

The Freedom Writers Foundation. At the Freedom Writers Foundation, Erin Gruwell developed the Freedom Writer Teachers Institute, where educators can receive a five-day intensive training aimed at helping them teach at-risk and vulnerable students, applying the same techniques that Erin initially used with the Freedom Writers.

Darrius Garrett. In Diary of a Freedom Writer , Freedom Writer Darrius Garrett shares the entirety of his personal story of violence, poverty, and success, expanding on the entries he first published in The Freedom Writers Diaries .

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The Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide

• Education > Curriculum and Instruction > Classroom Management
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction > Curriculum Development – Secondary
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction > General Methods – Secondary
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction > Student Teaching
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction by Subject > Business Methods – Secondary (Grades 7-12)
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction by Subject > Reading and Literacy – Secondary (Grades 7-12)
• Education > Curriculum and Instruction by Subject > Writing Methods – Secondary (Grades 7-12)

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• 1. FREEDOM WRITERS ASSIGNMENT 5: FILM STUDY & CONVENTIONS IN A FILM BY MONAE - COLOUR BLUE & NICOLE - COLOUR RED EDITING DONE TOGETHER
• 4. The reason we chose Freedom Writers is because it was a strong background based film that includes real life issues such as racial conflict. For example the scene where one of the students says that “if you were Latino, Asian, or Black you could get blasted anytime you walk out your door”. The student formed themselves into racial groups in the classroom. It then shows how they find themselves, come together and respect each over. This hard hitting film confronts issues that wouldn‟t usually be seen in the media.
• 5. The main genre Freedom Writers falls under is drama. A drama film usually has a character dealing with a problem including alcoholism, selling or taking drugs, racial prejudice, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, or some sort of violence and destruction that put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, and even in society.
• 6. The subgenres included in Freedom Writers are:  School drama  Teen drama  Romance drama  Crime drama
• 7. The hybrids included in Freedom Writers are:  Biography  Courtroom fiction  Tragedy
• 8. Stam‟s theory says that genre is not so easily defined under the „main genres‟ but can be classified in other ways such as budget, ethnicity focus or performer based. In relation to this, Freedom writers can be classified by the ethnicity focus, this is because the film is strongly about the race of the characters and what the characters have been through. In addition the social class of C2/D/E is how freedom writers could be classified as well.
• 10. Characters- First time teacher, Mrs Gruwell, is represented as a white middle class woman who wants to make a change in these students lives through making them aware of the outside world. She could also symbolise the key to freedom. This reflects how women have been given strong roles in modern films, as in the past films their roles were simply to do the „household roles‟, but things have changed for example „Salt‟ played by Angelina Jolie with strong role as a actress. The students stereotypes made them not believe in themselves, as teachers, such as the head of department look down on them. Not giving the students new books to read and telling Mrs Gruwell to take off her pearls.
• 12. Story traits: Freedom Writers is based on a true story where a first time teacher played by (Hilary Swank) faces a group of students who have been named by the government as “un- teachable, at-risk” teenagers. The movie represents teens who have all witnessed fights, shootings and murders of random people as well as their own friends and family. This film shows how ethnic groups fall into different categorisation and how negative stereotypes affect them all.
• 13. Costume:  Loose and street like clothing.  The male teenagers wear hooded tops, which gives a negative connotation, as well as baggy jeans and loose baggy t-shirts.  The girls dressed similar to the boys due to the people they associate themselves with, for example Eva.  Teachers were smartly dressed.
• 14. Props:  Weapons, such as knives and guns (which strengthens the negative views of the individuals).  Classroom props such as tables, chairs and a board etc.  The pictures and cards around the Holocaust museum.
• 15. SYNTAX • To get out of the poverty world and to do something with their lives. • Fighting against the bosses to accomplish something. • Friendship. Sticking with the right people.
• 16. - The lighting in the scene where Eva is on the bus looking is natural lighting bouncing off her face, makes the scene look dramatic as the lighting creates shadowing on her face to create a sorrowful atmosphere because of the darker background. This was a good close up on Eva showing her expression on her face. - In addition, the “Toast For Change” scene is very bright with all the natural lighting involved from the outside. It also has quite bright colours in this scene grab. Blue representing nature, calm, and fresh and yellow representing bright, happiness and summer.
• 17. CONVENTIONS Conventions of genre/sub/hybrid Examples from range of real films Students disrespecting teachers Kidulthood Poverty Slumdog Millionaire – The kids grew up in poverty Stereotypes of individuals Philadelphia – The man with aids was stereotyped Family loyalty Johnson Family vacation - They are sticking with their family Sticking with your gangs The Godfather – You need to stick together. Racism Hairspray Challenging relationships She‟s All That
• 18. CONVENTIONS ANALYSIS Conventions of Examples from your film Comparison to other genre/sub/hybrid (bullet points and films in the same screen grabs) genre/sub/hybrid? Racism -Separated in to their The Secrete Life of racial groups in the Bees. classroom -Gangs sticking to their own race -When the black boy gets an insulting picture passed around the classroom.
• 19. ……….. Conventions of Examples from Comparison to genre/sub/hybrid your film other films in the (bullet points and same screen grabs) genre/sub/hybrid? Historical -Learning about Titanic the Holocaust -Having dinner with the survivors - The talk about Ann Frank
• 20. ……….. Conventions of Examples from your film Comparison to other genre/sub/hybrid (bullet points and films in the same screen grabs) genre/sub/hybrid? Crime -A boy gets shot dead in Kidulthood a corner shop -in the flashback Marcus‟s friend accidentally shots himself - Brandy watches her father beat her mother
• 21. DOMINANT IDEOLOGY
• 22. Details of Target audience Secondary Explanation of why they would be audience Audience attracted to watch the film Age 13-19 20-40 Its about education / the star of the film. Gender Girls Boys The violence within the film may attract them. Ethnicity Mixture (Blacks, Latinos, White The target audience may be attracted as its about Asians) their backgrounds. The secondary audience may be attracted to see how different white people portray themselves to other. Social class Lower class/working class Middle class It shows how other classes work. Social Young boys (gang Chavs The film is about gangs, violence, drugs and life. group members) Sexual Straight people Homosexuals To see how they are portrayed in the film. orientation Profession/ Students Parent/teenagers It may be something they have been through, also the Role film may have gave a good message. Also to educate them.
• 23. Reasons why people watch the film Explanation Entertainment - In their holiday they began to make their changes, for example: Moving back in with the mum Throwing the gun away Telling the truth in court - They are breaking free from the old them. - Making a better person out of themselves to get out of the stereotypes.
• 24. Reasons why people watch the Explanation film Personal Identity - The characters are from different backgrounds - They all share different norms and values within their culture - They tend to look after their own
• 25. Reasons why people watch the Explanation film Integration & social interaction -Started off hating each other and only interacted with their own people. -The teacher made them find out about history. -Students began to tell their story and how they felt. - After finding similarities they had also how much they had been through, they started to interact with each other slowly. -Personal hand shanks were formed. -The students then began to feel like they belonged, especially the first year of high school with their teacher.

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Sociological Theories in The Movie Freedom Writers

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How to Teach The Freedom Writers Diary

• by Alana Domingo

The Freedom Writers Diary is a moving account from students in a high school class in Long Beach, California. The book is made up entirely of their journals, which were written with encouragement from their teacher Erin Gruwell.

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 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.

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. This activity will allow students to hone their creative writing skills and gain a better understanding of their fellow classmates' lives. 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. Reading those books alongside The Freedom Writers Diary can also prompt class discussion on violence and race in America.

The Freedom Writers Diary

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Summary of The Freedom Writers Diary

• Publication Date: 1999
• Length: 304 pages
• Lexile Measure: 900
• Recommended Grade Band: 9-10

Erin Gruwell is a first-year English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. During one class, she intercepts a note containing a racist caricature, which she compares to Nazi propaganda. 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.

Her students see parallels between the books and their own lives. The Freedom Writers Diary is a nonfiction compilation of the students' anonymous diary entries that reveal the teenagers' hardships and how they overcome difficulties during their four years in high school.

Content Warning: The Freedom Writers Diary contains strong language, racial epithets, violence, abuse, abortion, and drug use.

What Your Students Will Love About The Freedom Writers Diary

• Reading stories from the point of view of other students
• Being inspired to start their own journals about their life experiences

Potential Student Struggles With The Freedom Writers Diary

• The similar-sounding voices of the journal entries
• The violence in some of the student journals; their stories are true, and some students may find that hard to deal with.

Learning Objectives for The Freedom Writers Diary

• Discuss what makes a good teacher and how school systems can foster or inhibit excellence in teaching.
• Discuss the dangers students of Wilson High School face on a daily basis and how different students react to those dangers.
• Gain an understanding of racial tensions existing in America today and develop comments on overcoming these tensions.
• Discuss the role of anonymity in this book, including whether using numbered entries instead of names makes the experiences seem more universal or takes away from the forward momentum that tracing a given student's history might have offered.
• Cite and discuss the qualities that allow these students to defy the expectations that they would fail.
• Comment on the double standard on behavior by males and females as cited in this book, and evaluate ways the double standard is perpetuated.

Literary Elements in The Freedom Writers Diary

• Autobiography
• Foreshadowing
• Personification

Major Themes in The Freedom Writers Diary

Education — Many of the students in Gruwell's class were unmotivated and had no desire to learn, but she helped them discover the power of reading and writing.

Related Works:

• A Separate Peace , by John Knowles
• October Sky , by Homer Hickman
• The Pact , by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt

Individual and Society — While many students felt like it was them versus the world, Gruwell showed them that there were people that were on their side and rooting for them.

• Stargirl , by Jerry Spinelli
• The Bell Jar , by Sylvia Plath
• Of Mice and Men , by John Steinbeck

Success — Many students in Gruwell's class were seen as lost causes, but she saw the potential in them and helped them succeed in their academics.

• Outliers , by Malcolm Gladwell
• Freakonomics , by Stephen Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
• The Lottery Rose , by Irene Hunt

Other Resources for The Freedom Writers Diary

• A film adaptation titled Freedom Writers was released in 2007, starring Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell. The movie is similar in plotline to the book, but offers a personal look into Erin Gruwell's life and makes some students more central to the storyline. ( Watch the trailer )
• After graduation, the original Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell launched The Freedom Writers Foundation , a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving education across the country.
• Freedom Writers Film Curriculum
• Long Beach’s Freedom Writers 20 years later – where are they?
• How California Teacher Erin Gruwell Inspired a Generation of Writers

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10 Ways to Detect AI Writing Without Technology

As more of my students have submitted AI-generated work, I’ve gotten better at recognizing it.

AI-generated papers have become regular but unwelcome guests in the undergraduate college courses I teach. I first noticed an AI paper submitted last summer, and in the months since I’ve come to expect to see several per assignment, at least in 100-level classes.

I’m far from the only teacher dealing with this. Turnitin recently announced that in the year since it debuted its AI detection tool, about 3 percent of papers it reviewed were at least 80 percent AI-generated.

Just as AI has improved and grown more sophisticated over the past 9 months, so have teachers. AI often has a distinct writing style with several tells that have become more and more apparent to me the more frequently I encounter any.

Before we get to these strategies, however, it’s important to remember that suspected AI use isn’t immediate grounds for disciplinary action. These cases should be used as conversation starters with students and even – forgive the cliché – as a teachable moment to explain the problems with using AI-generated work. 

To that end, I’ve written previously about how I handled these suspected AI cases , the troubling limitations and discriminatory tendencies of existing AI detectors , and about what happens when educators incorrectly accuse students of using AI . 

With those caveats firmly in place, here are the signs I look for to detect AI use from my students. 

1. How to Detect AI Writing: The Submission is Too Long 

When an assignment asks students for one paragraph and a student turns in more than a page, my spidey sense goes off. 

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Almost every class does have one overachieving student who will do this without AI, but that student usually sends 14 emails the first week and submits every assignment early, and most importantly, while too long, their assignment is often truly well written. A student who suddenly overproduces raises a red flag.

2. The Answer Misses The Mark While Also Being Too Long

Being long in and of itself isn’t enough to identify AI use, but it's often overlong assignments that have additional strange features that can make it suspicious. 

For instance, the assignment might be four times the required length yet doesn’t include the required citations or cover page. Or it goes on and on about something related to the topic but doesn’t quite get at the specifics of the actual question asked. 

3. AI Writing is Emotionless Even When Describing Emotions 

If ChatGPT was a musician it would be Kenny G or Muzak. As it stands now, AI writing is the equivalent of verbal smooth jazz or grey noise. ChatGPT, for instance, has this very peppy positive vibe that somehow doesn’t convey actual emotion. 

One assignment I have asks students to reflect on important memories or favorite hobbies. You immediately sense the hollowness of ChatGPT's response to this kind of prompt. For example, I just told ChatGPT I loved skateboarding as a kid and asked it for an essay describing that. Here’s how ChatGPT started: 

As a kid, there was nothing more exhilarating than the feeling of cruising on my skateboard. The rhythmic sound of wheels against pavement, the wind rushing through my hair, and the freedom to explore the world on four wheels – skateboarding was not just a hobby; it was a source of unbridled joy.

You get the point. It’s like an extended elevator jazz sax solo but with words.  

4. Cliché Overuse

Part of the reason AI writing is so emotionless is that its cliché use is, well, on steroids.

Take the skateboarding example in the previous entry. Even in the short sample, we see lines such as “the wind rushing through my hair, and the freedom to explore the world on four wheels.” Students, regardless of their writing abilities, always have more original thoughts and ways of seeing the world than that. If a student actually wrote something like that, we’d encourage them to be more authentic and truly descriptive.

Of course, with more prompt adjustments, ChatGPT and other AI’s tools can do better, but the students using AI for assignments rarely put in this extra time.

5. The Assignment Is Submitted Early

I don’t want to cast aspersions on those true overachievers who get their suitcases packed a week before vacation starts, finish winter holiday shopping in July, and have already started saving for retirement, but an early submission may be the first signal that I’m about to read some robot writing.

For example, several students this semester submitted an assignment the moment it became available. That is unusual, and in all of these cases, their writing also exhibited other stylistic points consistent with AI writing.

Warning: Use this tip with caution as it is also true that many of my best students have submitted assignments early over the years.

6. The Setting Is Out of Time

AI image generators frequently have little tells that signal the AI model that created it doesn’t understand what the world actually looks like — think extra fingers on human hands or buildings that don’t really follow the laws of physics.

When AI is asked to write fiction or describe something from a student’s life, similar mistakes often occur. Recently, a short story assignment in one of my classes resulted in several stories that took place in a nebulous time frame that jumped between modern times and the past with no clear purpose.

If done intentionally this could actually be pretty cool and give the stories a kind of magical realism vibe, but in these instances, it was just wonky and out-of-left-field, and felt kind of alien and strange. Or, you know, like a robot had written it.

7. Excessive Use of Lists and Bullet Points  

Here are some reasons that I suspect students are using AI if their papers have many lists or bullet points: 

1. ChatGPT and other AI generators frequently present information in list form even though human authors generally know that’s not an effective way to write an essay. 

2. Most human writers will not inherently write this way, especially new writers who often struggle with organizing information.

3. While lists can be a good way to organize information, presenting more complex ideas in this manner can be .…

4 … annoying. 

5. Do you see what I mean? 

6. (Yes, I know, it's ironic that I'm complaining about this here given that this story is also a list.)

8. It’s Mistake-Free 

I’ve criticized ChatGPT’s writing here yet in fairness it does produce very clean prose that is, on average, more error-free than what is submitted by many of my students. Even experienced writers miss commas, have long and awkward sentences, and make little mistakes – which is why we have editors. ChatGPT’s writing isn’t too “perfect” but it’s too clean.  

9. The Writing Doesn’t Match The Student’s Other Work  

Writing instructors know this inherently and have long been on the lookout for changes in voice that could be an indicator that a student is plagiarizing work. 

AI writing doesn't really change that. When a student submits new work that is wildly different from previous work, or when their discussion board comments are riddled with errors not found in their formal assignments, it's time to take a closer look. 

10. Something Is Just . . . Off 

The boundaries between these different AI writing tells blur together and sometimes it's a combination of a few things that gets me to suspect a piece of writing. Other times it’s harder to tell what is off about the writing, and I just get the sense that a human didn’t do the work in front of me. 

I’ve learned to trust these gut instincts to a point. When confronted with these more subtle cases, I will often ask a fellow instructor or my department chair to take a quick look (I eliminate identifying student information when necessary). Getting a second opinion helps ensure I’ve not gone down a paranoid “my students are all robots and nothing I read is real” rabbit hole. Once a colleague agrees something is likely up, I’m comfortable going forward with my AI hypothesis based on suspicion alone, in part, because as mentioned previously, I use suspected cases of AI as conversation starters rather than to make accusations. 

Again, it is difficult to prove students are using AI and accusing them of doing so is problematic. Even ChatGPT knows that. When I asked it why it is bad to accuse students of using AI to write papers, the chatbot answered: “Accusing students of using AI without proper evidence or understanding can be problematic for several reasons.” 

Then it launched into a list. 

• Best Free AI Detection Sites
• My Student Was Submitting AI Papers. Here's What I Did
• She Wrote A Book About AI in Education. Here’s How AI Helped

Erik Ofgang is a Tech & Learning contributor. A journalist,  author  and educator, his work has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and Associated Press. He currently teaches at Western Connecticut State University’s MFA program. While a staff writer at Connecticut Magazine he won a Society of Professional Journalism Award for his education reporting. He is interested in how humans learn and how technology can make that more effective. 

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