The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Foreword and Freshman Year

Reading Check

1. Zlata Filipović (Foreword)

2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl & Zlata’s Diary (Foreword)

3. Rodney King Riots (Freshman Year, Fall, Ms. Gruwell)

4. Schindler’s List (Freshman Year, Fall, Ms. Gruwell)

5. California Proposition 187 (Freshman Year, Fall, Student Diaries)

6. Durango Street (Freshman Year, Fall, Student Diaries)

7. John Tu (Freshman Year, Spring, Ms. Gruwell)

Short Answer

1. The school considered Ms. Gruwell to be a liability because of her upstart attitude. (Freshman Year, Fall, Ms. Gruwell)

2. The students indicate that the other classes are for “Distinguished Scholars,” while their class is for those who are troubled and bused in from bad neighborhoods. The students indicate that schools are divided by race, like cities. (Freshman Year, Fall, Student Diaries)

3. Ms. Gruwell compares the Capulet and Montague families’ conflict to a rivalry between a Latino gang and an Asian gang. (Freshman Year, Spring, Student Diaries)

Sophomore Year

Reading Check

1. To the Medieval Times Restaurant (Sophomore Year, Fall, Student Diaries)

2.