Lesson: Freedom Writers, 2007        

"Freedom Writers," a story-driven urban drama that opens today in Pittsburgh, is a mostly faithful adaptation of "The Freedom Writers Diary," a best-selling collection of student journal entries compiled by the kids who wrote it and their white teacher, Erin Gruwell.

In the 1990s, Gruwell was a young, idealistic teacher assigned to a class of incorrigible, underachieving black and Hispanic high school students. Frustrated with her public school's inability to educate her troubled kids, she bucked the system with unconventional teaching methods, broke the students' culture of race-based violence and mistrust, and enabled them to learn.

Gruwell's colleagues thought "The Diary of Anne Frank" was beyond her students' reading level, but they were so moved by the book's account of an oppressed teen living in a violent, racist war zone, they raised money to fly Gies to Los Angeles to address the class.

Students will analyze the movie Freedom Writers, revealing the personal stories of LosAngeles teens growing up in rough neighborhoods and documenting their experiences in a diary format. The direction of Richard LaGravenese and his filmography will be discussed. Freedom Writers is an option for an extra credit reading, studetns will be required to write their own diary in the style of the Freedom Writers. Film terminology will be presented as they are demonstrated in the exhibition of the motion picture.