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| The Freedom Writers Diary | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 20 2008, 07:22 PM (184 Views) | |
| blue | Mar 20 2008, 07:22 PM Post #1 |
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Warning: Book contains frequest use of 'F' word and mature langauge. Review by Bryan Carey of Amazon.com for The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them Rating: 4/5 Freedom Writers Diary is a book composed by Ms. Erin Gruwell and the many students who became part of her extended family during her first four years teaching at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. The high school students' lives were forever changed by the teaching practices of this young, unorthodox teacher and this book offers a glimpse inside some of the many interesting and surprising entries written by the students themselves in their daily journals. This book is a collection of 142 diary entries taken from the students and the candidness of these young people will shock some readers. Students share their most private thoughts, and they include daily encounters with physical violence; frequent engagements with guns and gunfire; everyday encounters with dysfunctional family members; and constant reminders of their own problems and those of the world immediately around them. Some of the entries sound like they were taken straight from the dialogue of a violent movie. Others sound like they came from the transcript of a busy social worker. They students generally write with a certain feeling of dread and despair. They cannot believe that anything positive will ever come from their lives and they don't believe that anything will ever get them away from their neighborhoods and away from the suffocating lifestyle that they have known since birth. But as you read the diary entries, you will slowly notice a change in attitude. It starts out slowly and starts to grow. The pessimistic thoughts and general feelings of gloom and doom are slowly replaced by a positive outlook on life. The entries in this book are in chronological order so that the reader can clearly witness the changes as they take place. There are no names (except for a few exceptions), but in some instances you can tell by the stories which entries were written by the same people based on their content. The transformation of the students is encouraging, and they have Erin Gruwell to thank for the change in attitude that convinces these once hopeless underachievers to realize that they really are capable of great things. One surprising quality of the entries in this book is the writing itself. It isn't perfect, but it is far better than many readers will imagine. I noticed this right away and I wondered how the students were able to learn to write so effectively in so little time. Then, I discovered why: Erin Gruwell wasn't content to let her students write sloppy, grammatically incorrect diary entries. She insisted that they take time to edit what they wrote each day. Only after close scrutiny with an editor's pen did their ordinary prose become good enough for inclusion in this book. This was a smart- not to mention educational- move by Ms. Gruwell. Not only did it make the entries more readable for publication in a book, it also taught the students how to proofread and make corrections so that their written material would be more presentable. Overall, The Freedom Writers Diary is a very interesting, very realistic book written by a determined teacher and the 150 students whose lives she helped change for the better. The brutal honesty will shock, enrage, and sadden many readers. But the personal growth of these youngsters as they move from grade to grade and slowly mature into happier, more confident youth is both uplifting and inspiring. It shows the power that one person can have on the lives of others and it's a book worth reading for both educators and others who like books with fresh ideas and positive messages. |
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9:21 AM Jul 11

