Freedom Writers ! Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The teacher Mrs Grunwell wrote a diary every day about the class and how it went from the day she began to teach them.She even thought that she was to young to involving with teaching at a high school but anyway she loves to teach young students about literature,but the whole class was unteachable.She kept pushing them to learn in any kind of ways.



The three most important in the diary was:



She really wanted to help them even though everyone stood out after a week or so,but the thing was they all say her as a wealthy women and wanted a good conscience.She took good tricks how to bond the class mates by learning stuffs that all of them is similare to them.



If you were latino,afro-american,white or asian there was a war between them all and kept shooting at each other on the streets.There were only one white boy int that class everyone thought what in the hell is he doing in this class because every white students are smart and goes for their selves in a class of their own.



The latina girl found herself similare to Juliet because her loves story is the one she got and her parents didn't approve the relationship between them.As she wondered more about the story about Juliet and Romeo,she wanted more details for exampel how her parents reacted and how she responded to them unlikely for her she didnt saw anything to the parents and got curfew and no outside communication.



The three intressenting parts in the story was:



The teacher never gave up on them and now got them a idé about writing a journal/diary and no one in the class could read it besides herself if they wanted to,they could write everything from musik to their onwn lifestyles and how the experiance the "ghetto".After a while she read awful things they got throw by themselves and thought no one could understand how they felt/feels but they wrong and she planned to have some games with them and talk serious with them.



She took the whole class for a field trip to Schindler's List and saw how the people looked strangely at her and took their purses in fear of the colored young "gangsters".One even had the nerv to tell her "if you love black people so much why don't you just marry a monkey".That is the most awful thing she ever heard I belive but that is just my opinion.But luckily the proffessors read all that on a article in a newspaper and invited the class to a seminar to see the author of Schindler's List Thomas Keneally.Even himself he got impressed of them and invited them to meet Steven Spielberg at University Studios.When they returned from the University the head of the English department "You are making us look bad" !
Her bubble burst their but she wanted to keep her job and make a diffrence to the students.

There were a reputation about Sharaud threatened his last english teacher with a fake gun and was the clown of the entire class.But it took a month for her to win over Sharaud and by time got exicted for her lessons to learn more about literature.Mrs Grunwell or as "mrs G" as they called her for wondered how long it would take forthe other ones to be as Sharaud.

(This is an incredible story and even true,I've seen the movie and I just wanted to saw I loved with my entire heart.They spoke like it really was real but the "ghetto" they speak of know I can't understand because it's much better now than ever before.)

Freedom Writers Diary

I found three interesting parts.

1. "It's so hard for me to change because I fear that people will not like the sober me."
I think that she is afraid to show her real personality and because of that she drinks more alcohol so she can dare to be someone. I also think that she is a shy girl who doesn't talk as much and then people think she is boring. She knows that she can't be without alcohol because then no one want to be with her. She wants to change herself and her life, she doesn't want to be that kind of girl who drinks alcohol, steal and not give a shit about important things like school. She knows that she is going to regret all she have done when she went older because then she have no education, no job and no money.

2. "Not only did I cause my parents pain, but I also threw away my own pride and good judgement trying to be someone I'm not."
Now she really regret what she have done. She steal make-up from a shop and a security officer have seen her do that so she have to go to a smal store with him and shows all that she have steal. Her parents went angry and they don't know what to say because they don't thought their daughter would do a thing like that. She have never feel so ashamed before and she doesn't want to look at her parents. She tought they were going to kill her. Now she doesn't feel any pride of herself, she feels like she has destroy her own judgement.

3. "I'm going to be strong." I like this when I read it. In spite of all she have done and her big mistakes she knows that she could change herself if she really wants to. She is a strong girl with a strong will and she is ready to give all she can to make the situation become better. Even if her parents is angry, I think they would be very proud of their daughter if she wants to change her life. They care about her so much so they are overprotective of her and then she thinks that they don't love her, but it's just what they do!

Reminder of the homework due on Wednesday Sunday, April 12, 2009

This is to remind you of your homework that is due on Wednesday April 15. Don't forget, since I want to use some of your writing in class on Thursday! Hope you have all had a nice holiday. I had a great time in Spain. I especially loved the city of Granada.

Here is a link to old national tests that you can use for practise. We will do some of them in class, but it's a good idea to try to do the tests at home as well: http://www.ipd.gu.se/enheter/sol/nafs/exempel_provuppgifter/engelska_a_exempeluppg/

hi :) Saturday, April 11, 2009

I found some interesting parts and motivated my choice.

“I am going to protect my own”Why I chose to write about this was because of that I saw that the truth may ultimately find their way, although it was difficult to reveal. so when she said the most important for her it is protect hers own because she has no choice so she had forced to lie for thing she believe for, even if it was wrong. Which can be effected us badly, to feel bad for it because our conscience reprimand ourselves and so often the truth win than the wrong because it has more capacity to be stronger.

“It is so hard for me to change because I fear that people will not like the sober me”What I can not understand sometimes is that we judge ourselves by others' thoughts because we think through this we can adapt to their lives, but it totally wrong.
Or sometimes it happens that we convince our self to the problem we had, certainly the most we know have it. Then it may suffer a major problem as we have difficulty we take away from us, or to take control of it.
What I think that sometimes man deceive yourself not others. That you can not change their fate, so has more self determination and a strong will can change everything we want to be, and it is your life not others so live for you not to other.
“Why should I read books about people that don’t look like me? People that I don’t even know and that I am not going to understand because they don’t understand me”
what I think when I read the quotes and the rest of her text, so can we see that she discovered herself that she was wrong, so there should be always daring to look at the whole of the thing if we initially show disinterest can lead to that we cant understand view of the different things that can happen every day.

“The buildings were burning and people got beaten up just because of the color of their skin their religion or ethnicity”I like this little text because before so were, many people beaten and killing in a tragic way just because they have a different skin color or religion and I think it was wrong.
All of us have the same value and nobody is better than the other.
And whatever man is so should all accept the person as the other and here in Sweden all accept you whatever you are from.

“I believe we should all be aware of and also to realize that we are not alone”
I think it is a good quote because if I have problem so I am not alone for there are many people who feel the same sense for example if I am bored and just want to take a suicide but I know I am not lonely because there are many people in the world who feel the same feeling as me so I should always be happy because for every problem so there are a solution.

Freedom writers... Sunday, April 5, 2009

I pictured her waiting for her father to come home, knowing he wasn't. I pictured her visiting him, and not being abel to touch him because of an unbreakable window, and I imagined her wanting to unlock his cage, knowing she could't.

I got pictures in my mind when she were telling about one day in her life. She were a member of a gang who pushed her at the wrong way and made her lie in front of everybody. When she saw a mother cry with a little girl in her knees, it reaminds her about her mother when her father and brother got into prison. She has this memories when she were waiting for her father to come home but he never came and she pictured herself visiting her father but were not be abel to touch him because of a unbreakable window. This sentences gave me very strong feelings because I can imagine myself in that kind of situation.


The momentous for a child is to have parents who can be there for them and to be loved of parents is every childs dream in my opinion. I choose this part because it affected me emotional. It is very hard to lose someone, you don't want to belive that the person is gone and you are waiting and wating. I know that waiting is waste of time because if you know for sure that you can't or that it will not happen then it is waste of time. Sometimes you want to help people around you because they are hurt, or need your help in someway but sometimes you can't help them because they have to go through things for learning. It maybe sound very hard like I am a cold person but if you think twice you will see that it is right. This girl hid her feelings very early because they took her father from her. If something bad happen in our life, the first thing we do is to hide our feelings and close our door to our heart. This girl has done that, she don't wanted to admit that her english teacher were right but later she opened her door again because she felt that someone cared about her.


I was talked into doing things I knew were wrong.

This sentence is very powerfull, this things happen all the time and everywere. When I saw this sentence I saw myself :O people around you always affect you no matter if you like it or not. It could be something good or bad and the choice is ours. We often put our burden on someone else. If someone tell something for us we belive it but whos responsibility is it to find out if it is true or not?

for exemple if your mother are saying: your father is stupid and he doesn't understand how I feel, he is not a good father and he doesn't care. Then you start to thing if she's right, she is your mother and we always learn to listen to our mothers. Soner or later you will think that she's right. But you forgot the most important thing, everything has to sides and I mean that you have to listen to the both sides. When you have listened then you got your own opinion.

People you look up to has big power on you. We listen to much to people instead of turning inside in ourselfs and listen to our inside voice. 3 years ago I was a very naive little girl who belived everything and I let myself influence by others. I learn to listen to both sides and then decide my own opinion. But this is just the begining. Every people changes and be wiser but you have to open your doors.


If they only knew that on the inside I am just barley keeping it together.

When you see a person, you see a face and you maybe see feelings in the eyes. Every person has a shell in the beginning or maybe the hole time. You may think that you know a person and you are sure about it but every person change and has their dark sides. You know a girl who is very happy and she always smiling. People thinks that she is pretty, have nice hair and a nice body. People think that she has everything but they are wrong. You see a face you don't know what that person are feeling or thinking.

Homework due April 15 at 9 pm Thursday, April 2, 2009

Today time flew in class and before I knew it it was just 10 minutes left! You worked with the questions that I posted below and we had time to answer some of them, but not all. Please finish answering the questions at home and also check the links that I have added to some of them.

Please note that on Tuesday April 14 there will be no English class in the afternoon. However, there will be another class instead (medicinsk grundkurs). Instead I want you to read Diary 33-40 from Freedom Writers Diary that I handed out today. Find 3 quotes/parts in those diaries that interest you or that you reacted to in some way. Write a blog post about your reactions.
Your post is due no later than 9 pm (21:00) Wednesday April 15.

Freedom Writers
Part 1
Questions:

1. Describe the teacher Ms Gruwell’s thoughts about her new job.
2. Ms Gruwell mentions “The Rodney King Riots”. Find out what happened.
3. Why did the drawing that was passed around amongst the students affect Ms Gruwell so much and what did she compare it to?
4. What seemed to be the students’ first impression of their new teacher and the class?
5. Describe some of the students’ backgrounds and their experiences in life.
6. How do you think the students’ backgrounds affected them? Try to see both positive and negative aspects.
7. Why do you think Ms Gruwell made her students read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?
8. In what ways could the students relate to Romeo and Juliet?
9. Explain what happened at Pearl Harbor during the Second World War. Also explain how one of the students could relate to reading about it.
10. Try to find out more about the people Ms Gruwell invited to the panel discussion on diversity: Danny Haro, Edward James Olmos, Lisa Ramirez, Bob Gentry, Mas Okui, Renee Firestone.