'Freedom Writers' Questions

1. Why do Ms. Gruwell's students hate and resent her at first?

The students hate and resent Ms. Gruwell for multiple reasons. The students don't like the fact that she is white and they feel that she has not earned their respect. Over time, she sympathizes with her students and works to find ways to earn their respect. She relates to their lives and historical issues which helps the students view life in a different way.

2. How does Ms. Gruwell's upbrining, appearance and attitude contrast with those of her students?

From the beginning, the viewer can initially tell that Ms. Gruwell had a normal, happy upbrining while the students are continuously faced with the risk of violence, death, drugs, and weapons. She most likely did not have those same risks in school. Ms. Gruwell is also dressed typically in a neat skirt and blouse in which makes her look very professional. Her students on the other hand are dressed in much more raggedy clothing. Additionally, Ms. Gruwell has a very sunny outlook on life for she is constantly smiling and believes in the hope of education. Her students, in contrast, believe that they will drop out of high school eventually and have a negative outlook on life due to events that have happened personally to them.

3. Most of the teachers at Wilson High do not dress in formal attire. Why do you think Ms. Gruwell chooses to wear business suits and pearls to class? What impression does this make? How do clothes, accessories, and make-up affect how others percieve you?

Ms. Gruwell probably dresses in professional, fancy attire because she wants to make a statement of her self for professionalism and because she is setting an example for her students. The impression that it leaves is that she is very neat and most likely lives a very sheltered, peaceful lifestyle. Items that we choose to wear affects how people percieve you in way that states how much you care about yourself. Also, it defines much of your personality.

4. What obstacles does Ms. Gruwell face in ensuring that her students recieve adequate supplies and an innovative education?

Ms. Gruwell constantly faces conflicts with the faculty and school board helping her pay for things. For example, when she wants to get books for her students books, those who are above her in status decline because of fear of getting the books ruined. Additionally, they feel that the students are not smart enough for books. She even starts other jobs so that she can pay for the books.

5. Why aren't Ms. Gruwell's students provided with new books from the school?

As mentioned before, the school will not pay for books because they feel the student's are not smart enough and that the student's will destroy the books. I feel that this is wrong because it is denying the student's education that could help them in the future. It is a way of setting the student's up to fail which makes a statement on where they are headed in life, just like the self fullfilling prophecy.

6. What are some of the inequalities among students and classrooms in Wilson High School?

Wilson High School diplays examples of education inequalities. For example, when the black student was put into an honors program, one can tell that it is rare for an African American to recieve that kind of opportunity. It is an assumption that I made that those students also recieve better supplies and recieve a better education which is unfair for other students who need an equal opportunity in education.

7. Describe how the honors English students are treated differently from the "at risk" students. Why?

Honors English students recieve more opportunities than "at risk" students as mentioned above. For example, they would be given better books, they are taken much more seriously, given more respect, and recieve better supplies in general. This is most likely the case because of their upbringings and the fact that they are in an honors program makes the statement that those students care about their education, therefore they will recieve more opportunities. These students are not set up to fail.

8. Why do you think Ms. Gruwell faces such hard criticism from her peers and administrators at Wilson High? Describe some of the challenges Ms. Gruwell faces in dealing with the authority of the school.

Ms. Gruwell faces such hard criticism because her way of doing things was different and promoted equal education which was not widely accepted at this point in time. They feel that she is messing up the program of the school when in reality, she is only trying to help her students achieve. Some of the challenges she faces is with the field trip to the Holocaust Museum, the Holocaust guest speaker, recieveing books for her students, and continuing on with her freshman English class.

Week 24

 On Monday my mentor teacher had the students due a lot of practice workseets online about probability. She went over all of them with the students. This served as an AIMS review. I was never entirely aware at how important AIMS was until this year. The elementary schools make a huge deal out of it as well as the high school. my mentor teacher had the students take a practice AIMS test and from their scores she can decide what the students need improvement on. A big part of math is pracicing. That is a great way to get good at it is too practice and gain confidence with the material. Thursday and Friday I helped grade papers. I am getiing really good at that! For the first time I graded the students timed math facts worksheet. Typically there were students who did very well or others who struggled with it, but not usually somewhere in between. Again, practice is key. I was surprised at how long it took to grade even a few of them. I'm not sure how often she does those worksheets. I would probably guess once every two weeks or so. There is also a student in class that needs help on a lot of problems. It seems as though he needs someone to walk him through everything. I wonder, how as a teacher you could help raise his confidence. I may want to try some more one on one and trying to help him be more active in class. It is a struggle however, if the student does not want to learn. Perhaps it would help to have special reinforcement for that student but I'll keep watching my mentor teacher and see if she can offer more advice in that area.

Week 23

Last week was a paper grading week! Monday I graded their independent practice math worksheets. It surprisingly took the whole time. I never really realized it, but with grading it is necessary to make judgement calls on whether the question is right or wrong. Thursday I graded their math assessments which was front and back. As a general, the class did pretty well. I've noticed a few problems with simplifying and doing larger math equations. That should come with practice. My mentor teacher is really cracking down on the AIMS testing that they are doing next week. She is redoing topics that a lot of the students missed on their practice AIMS test. I can tell that this is a really important test, just as it is in high school. I even watched the students recite memorized poems. As I expected, a lot of the students had not memorized it, while others had it memorized it completely, and some only had it memorized partially. Memorization, I have found, can be very difficult no matter what age. It takes motivation and concentration which canbe achieved with time and practice. My mentor teacher stated that she had never had so many students not memorize the poem. Unfortunately, it is the choice of the student on whether to do it or not like with most assignments.

Third Lesson Plan March 29

I am going to be completely honest, I was incredibly nervous for this lesson plan. I was really doubting myself, hoping I would remember the "left and right" parts in my input and worrying about the time. It was amazing though. When I started the lesson, all of those worries seemed to just go away as I gained confidence in myself, the lesson, and the students. I began with having one of the students say the objective. I found it interesting because my mentor teacher told me after my lesson that when teachers are being observed and graded, that they need to say their lesson objective a certain number of times throughout the lesson. She said that that was something new that the district was required to do. Then I started with my anticipitory set. I reviewed positive and negative numbers with them and showed them a map with coordinate planes as an example of the objective. Going on to the input was perhaps the best part of the lesson because the students had a blast moving up and down, left and right as I plotted the points. My mentor teacher even wanted to steal the idea which was really incredible. I had a lot of fun as well. When we went to the guided practice, I did the worksheet with them on the overhead and moved around the room to help them with plotting. Then we did it together on the overhead. With the independent practice there was some confusion about how to connect the points. Either student's knew how to do it or they were missing something somewhere but for the most part it looked like everyone knew what they were doing concerning how to plot the points. That made me feel very rewarded because they were rocking in the concern of plotting the points. I was very excited. The closure was somewhat missing due to time constraints. Some students were finishing while others were much farther behind. As a challenge, I allowed the students to plot their own point and label it, but only if they were done. This appeared to add confusion as well to some students, but my mentor teacher said to scrap the idea. The lesson was successfully taught and I felt very good about it in the end. I feel as though the students met the objective and I am very happy to have taught that particular lesson.

Week 22

This week was very exciting because I taught my third lesson plan of this year! That can be found in my reflection blog. In general, last week I helped one of the students with learning about obtuse, acute, straight, and right angles. He really seemed to know what he was doing with this lesson and listening to my mentor teacher I could tell that she too was excited about him understanding it. He even answered the question in a different way, but having it still be a correct answer. He said that the measure was 46 degrees. The answer she was looking for was 45 degrees but they are such close measurements that the answer could be correct when measuring. This could have helped other students who may have had a question about it. I've also been watching a lot of math lessons in her class. I am realizing that not every lesson is going to be a great hit but it is important to practice and enforce everything that you are trying to teach. If a bunch of the students aren't understanding, then you can trace back and reteach or continue doing practice problems depending on what the situation is.