What is this?

My name is Megan Jorgensen. I am here to investigate the Freedom Writers and give future teachers, like me, a resource to help them in their classroom. The Freedom Writers are a group of students that lived in California. These students defied all odds and succeeded to graduate from high school and go on to college. They overcame gangs, stereotypes and the belief of their own school with the help of Erin Gruwell to become the Freedom Writers today.

Throughout this blog, I am going to investigate the Freedom Writers to give teachers now and teachers in the future a resource to help them understand what Erin Gruwell did with the Freedom Writers and how you can reproduce a replica of what she did in your own classroom. I am going to give background on the Freedom Writers including the major motion picture that was recently made and the four books that have been published involving the Freedom Writers.

I had the opportunity to meet two of the Freedom Writers and interview teachers that have used the Freedom Writers method within their own classroom. There is now a Freedom Writers Foundation website that Erin Gruwell runs currently with an abundance of great information on there that I will walk you through as well.

As there is in many topics, there is conflict with the Freedom Writers as well. I will share with you that conflict and my opinions as well as others that include the conflict.

I want to serve as a resource for the Freedom Writers fandom and immerse myself within that fandom. I am an education major with an emphasis in English and I want to emphasize this in my own classroom. I am vey passionate about this subject and excited to share this passion with you and the field of education. I hope that you feel just as much inspiration as I do with this topic. Here we go!

Who are the Freedom Writers?

*Photo from VisionMagazine.com

The Freedom Writers are a group of 150 at-risk students that the administration of the school told Erin Gruwell (the teacher) would never succeed. Erin Gruwell was in her first teaching job, which is scary as it is, but she was determined that these kids would succeed. She turned the curriculum to focus on what they would be interested in and started journals to release some of the difficult areas that they had to deal with in their own lives.

This all happened starting in 2004 in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell defied all the odds and is still helping teachers defy the odds today.

Freedom Writers Books

*Photo from marshall.edu

The Freedom Writers first became known throughout their books. They were obviously around before that, but the books brought them into the spotlight.

Erin Gruwell used the first book as a project within her classroom. She starting having her students write entries to their own diary. Those diary entries helped the students share their anger and relieve stress. Those diaries eventually tuned into The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. This book is constructed by all of the diary entries of the 150 Freedom Writers to give us an idea of how the students were living and going to school, an awful picture.

Here is an idea from the Freedom Writers Foundation Website of what the students wrote about:

“We began writing anonymous journal entries about the adversities that we faced in our every day lives. We wrote about gangs, immigration, drugs, violence, abuse, death, anorexia, dyslexia, teenage love, weight issues, divorce, suicide, and all the other issues we never had the chance to express before. We discovered that writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward. Room 203 was like Anne's attic or Zlata's basement, it was our safe haven, where we could cry, laugh, and share our stories without being judged. We began writing anonymous journal entries about the adversities that we faced in our every day lives. We wrote about gangs, immigration, drugs, violence, abuse, death, anorexia, dyslexia, teenage love, weight issues, divorce, suicide, and all the other issues we never had the chance to express before. We discovered that writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward. Room 203 was like Anne's attic or Zlata's basement, it was our safe haven, where we could cry, laugh, and share our stories without being judged.”

They wrote about their lives and how they are making it through. Erin Gruwell used that escape route to help her students get through their rough times, while learning at the same time.

The Freedom Writers Foundation has also published three other books to help teachers. These books are Teach With Your Heart (2008) by Erin Gruwell, which is a book about the lessons that she learned from the Freedom Writers. Teaching Hope (2009), a book by the Freedom Writers teachers illustrating different stories and experiences they have had. The Freedom Writers Diary: The Teacher Guide (2007) is the curriculum that Gruwell used while teaching the Freedom Writers. All of these books are an essence of how much impact Erin Gruwell has had on this society.

*Information and quote from Freedom Writers Foundation Website

Freedom Writers: The Movie

*Photo from daveferguson.typepad.com

Along with the many books that the group has had an involvement with publishing, there is also a major motion picture that was released based on their story. Freedom Writers, brought to the movie screen in 2007 was a portrayal of their book in a major motion picture form. Hilary Swank played Erin Gruwell in the movie, an actor whom I love, but some reviewers had a harsh reaction to. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. Here is a link to the Freedom Writers movie website:

Freedom Writers Movie

The site is a great site full of information about the movie. The movie was released by MTV and grossed $26,605,602 (courtesy of Box Office Mojo) so it was a fairly successful motion picture for it being educationally based.

Rotten Tomatoes by Flixster, a movie critic site had critics that evaluated the movie. Now we need to keep in mind that these are critics that evaluated the movie not fans, but here’s what some of the critics had to say:

“Engaging but clichéd inspirational drama set during the time of the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles. On some level, just about any movie featuring never-say-die teachers is effective” –Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

“Square, sincere, and proud of it.” –Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“Corny? You bet. And worse when the plot veers into the glitz of a Dangerous Minds and the sappiness of a TV After School Special. But the movie, which Swank helped produce using her clout as a two-time Oscar winner, gets to you” –Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“Freedom Writers is another exceptional teacher scenario not so different from the norm” –Tom Charity, CNN.com

Now I realize these are from critics and not the fan reaction which I wish I could find, but most of the reviews were not very positive that I found. I feel that now the anger will come out from me being an education major. Maybe, it is that these movies only relate to the teachers and the kids that are their age and living their lives? I don’t know, but the negative reaction from the critics does not make me a very happy person from the fan’s perspective. But, that is why I am a fan. A fan loves the show and doesn’t listen to what a critic says, a fan is a positive representation of the fandom and believes and follow it, no matter what.

*Information taken from Rotten Tomatoes website as well as the Freedom Writers official movie website.

Meeting the Freedom Writers

I had the amazing opportunity to meet two of the Freedom Writers at a Grand Island Librarian conference. Two of the original Freedom Writers were the keynote speakers at that conference so I got to hear them speak. The fans at this event were teachers and librarians both looking for books in their own library and classroom, as well as looking for inspiration to make their students have better lives.

Sharaud Moore and Maria Reyes were the two speakers at the concert. Sharaud Moore began with an extremely powerful quote about his experiences with Erin Gruwell.

He stated, “If there was a recipe for failure, I had all the ingredients.”

They continued to tell their story of where they were and how Erin Gruwell made them the way they are now. Sharaud Moore is teaching at a school very close to the school that Gruwell taught him in. Maria Reyes is working with the Freedom Writers Foundation and just decided to go back to school to get her teaching degree. They are both showing their success because of Erin Gruwell.

Freedom Writers Foundation

*Erin Gruwell picture from farm6.static.flickr.com

After Erin Gruwell taught the Freedom Writers she wanted to inspire more students then just the students who walked into her classroom everyday so she began to form the Freedom Writers Foundation.

This is taken directly from the Freedom Writers Foundation including both the mission and the vision.

The mission of the Freedom Writers Foundation is to change the educational system one classroom at a time by providing educators with transformative tools to engage, enlighten and empower at-risk students to reach their full potential.

The vision of the Freedom Writers Foundation is to improve the quality of life in the community it serves by:

• Equipping teachers with the tools they need to reach and empower their students

• Increasing teacher retention and fulfillment

• Lowering student dropout rates

• Creating classrooms with an atmosphere of cultural inclusion and acceptance.

Here is a direct link to the website to find out more information:

Freedom Writers Foundation

This website will allow you to set up appearances with Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers as well as a very valuable source for information for teachers who wish to teach in the Freedom Writers curriculum.

*Information taken from Freedom Writers Foundation Website

Freedom Writers Institute

Now to focus on the educators, people that play a humoungous role in founding this movement. Erin Gruwell has formed the foundation and also formed a Freedom Writers Institute that teachers can apply to attend to understand what Erin Gruwell does and how she so strongly impacts a classroom. This application is reviewed by many boards and you will be sent a packet if you are invited to attend.

If you are interested in applying see this site:

Freedom Writers Institute

Here are some testimonials from teachers from Nebraska that have attended the Freedom Writers Institute:

“I have experienced firsthand the effects that this training has had on my students. Now they are fully engaged in school and have learned to respect others as well as themselves. But, most important of all, they have what I was taught to teach: Hope!”

Cedric Cooper, Omaha, Nebraska

“When I walked into my first teaching job in an urban midwest high school in January, 2009, I was the seventh teacher my students had seen for sophomore English that year. They were unmotivated, apathetic, and way behind.

Eight days into my assignment, a counselor visited my classroom. One of my students had been shot and killed in a jewelry store the night before.

I knew I needed the Freedom Writers’ stories. We put away the anthologies and spent the next few weeks reading, grieving, and sharing stories. The students connected with the text in a way I could not have imagined: gangsters brought to tears, the most resistant kids stealing the book to take home.

As a result of The Freedom Writers Diary and Freedom Writers methodology, my students realized I wasn’t just another filler teacher. They knew I cared about them because I taught to their interests and wasn’t afraid to teach about life.

I was overjoyed to attend the Freedom Writers Institute, which only deepened my beliefs in teaching to kids’ hearts, as well as their minds. I was connected with other professionals who know that teaching is not just an intellectual undertaking but one of the heart. I was validated in my beliefs and have since presented at district workshops and faculty development in order to ‘teach one to teach another.’”

Kerri Molczyk, Omaha, Nebraska

These teachers have changed children’s’ lives by attending this institute and they are starting a new foundation of teaching for our children today. How could those testimonies not be inspiring?

*Information taken from Freedom Writers Foundation Website.