Our Book: Freedom Writers

Click Here To Watch:
Freedom Writers i-Movie!

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And I also watched the actual Freedom Writers Movie...

My Reaction to the Movie:

Our Words, Our Voice.
In the movie, Freedom Writers, Ms. Erin Gruwell is forced to think on her feet as she faces her first days of being a teacher dealing with inner city kids who have never been known to have much potential. Ms. Gruwell is the first teacher who stands behind these “throw away students” to give them power over their lives. Through simple life lessons she empowers her students with a voice to change their world-reading for knowledge, writing to free themselves, and using education to control their own destinies. She gives her students the one thing they have never had: a voice of their own.

Freedom Writers is a movie with a very powerful message. Ms. Gruwell starts her first teaching career in a school of inner city kids whose normal days consist of drive-by shootings, drugs, and gangs. As her meticulously planned lessons are thrown out when she finds none of her students have heard of the Holocaust, Ms. Gruwell is forced to think on her feet. Through methods of adaptation, Ms. Gruwell battles for her students and against the school system and fights to make the classroom matter to her students.

So how did she do it? There were many different strategies Ms. Gruwell used in her teaching. She went above and beyond simple teaching styles to impact the kids of her classroom. She worked jobs outside of her job as a teacher just to have extra money to buy her kids news books and provide opportunities outside the classroom. She personally got to know each one of her students, took a cognitive style to learning, with hands on connections and experiences. She adapted her teaching to fit into her classroom and made changes when necessary. She stood up for what she believed in, and her students. She gave them respect and expected the same back from them along with the promise of succeeding.

In Woolfolk’s text a good teacher is defined as having three central qualities. Good teachers care about their students and establish positive interpersonal relationships. They also keep classroom organization under control without being mean, and lastly are good motivators by making learning fun with creativity. Ms. Gruwell was the definition of a good teacher for all these reasons and more.

First off, Ms. Gruwell worked very hard to establish positive interpersonal relationships with her students from the first day of class. She started this by establishing a base: their composition notebooks, or diaries. Here, she really got to know her students and understand their backgrounds. She could manipulate the lessons to reach out to things that could apply to them. Once the students understood she was there to support them a stronger bond was established, and much more learning was accomplished. It was through her personal caring that her students learned to trust her.

Secondly, Ms. Gruwell kept the classroom under control without having to be strict or rude. She set an expectation of her students and they learned to respect her through the respect she gave them. She acted as an authoritative figure to them. She took their learned helplessness and turned it around into achieving and believing students. She set the bar high and taught them to have a voice for themselves. During a time of self evaluation Ms. Gruwell asked the students to evaluate their progress and give themselves a grade. After one student gave himself an F Ms. Gruwell was very upset. She retorted, “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.”

And lastly, but not least, Ms. Gruwell took a very creative approach to teaching. Coming into the classroom Ms. Gruwell started motivating her students through extrinsic motivation. She did this by first purchasing them brand new books, something teachers had never done for them before. She also took them on educational field trips to places that tied in with the books they were reading. Slowly these extrinsic motivations became intrinsic motivations for the students. These students began doing their schoolwork, not simply for the rewards Ms. Gruwell gave them, but because they enjoyed the satisfaction of succeeding. Self efficacy was also a huge part of Ms. G's teaching strategy. Through believing that she could reach these "throw away students" Ms. G always made sure that each student knew they had the potential to succeed. She set the bar higher than it had ever been set before forcing the students to excel to the best of their abilities. In her toast for change speech, Ms. G tells her students that all the voices that have told them can't succeed will be silenced. The toast, creatively impacts the students to start on a new beginning.

As the definition of a good teacher, Ms. Gruwell excelled beyond her job description to make an impact on the lives of these previously recognized “throw away students”. Through simple lessons she empowered her students with a voice to change their world. She handed them the power of education to have control over their own destinies.