Freedom Writers Presentation Project
Freedom Writers Discussion Project and Presentation:
You will work with 4 or 5 other team members to develop a brief Google or PowerPoint
Presentation to give on Tuesday. Please email the powerpoint to Ms. Rodriguez or have an
ASB drive and/print out of it.
Presentation Parameters:
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at least 5 slides
All group members must share
Choose 3 “Golden Quotes” related to your question and explain the connection
Find 1 article (library or internet, audio, video, etc.) related to your question. Give an
overview of the source and then share the connections between the source and your
group’s discussion question
Develop 2-3 related questions and guide our class in a 5-minute discussion
What I will collect: 1-2 typed pages from EACH GROUP MEMBER exploring your
answer to the question with textual evidence from Freedom Writers, outside texts
resources such as articles, books, and internet sources) You will need to provide a
bibliography for each of your research.
GROUP 1: Discuss tolerance. In what ways does discrimination occur in everyday life? Does reverse
discrimination exist? If so, give examples of how it occurs in daily life.
Group 2: Do you believe that the war-torn lives of Zlata Filipovic and Anne Frank can be compared to
life in urban America today? Explain and give examples. How are the lives of the Freedom Writers warlike? How do individual Freedom Writers win particular battles and why? Do any or all of them win the
war?
Group 3: Do you think that your classroom can achieve the status of the Freedom Writers? How would
you need to change your study habits to make this a reality? What can your teacher do to make this a
reality? How can you carry on the legacy of the Freedom Writers?
Group 4: Why do you think the Freedom Writers were so receptive to Gruwell? After all, they seem to
have had experience with people who said they wanted to help this group of students before, so why
would this one woman be any different than the ones who came before her here or who exist elsewhere?
What made Gruwell effective?
Group 5: The Freedom Writers found parallels between their lives and the literature they read for
Gruwell’s class. What effect did finding those parallels have on the Freedom Writers? Are there
connections that you made between yourself and an aspect of the text? Why or why not? Can you relate to
the Freedom Writers? How does your life parallel theirs, how does it differ?
Group 6: If you could change one thing about life in urban America that is suggested in the book, what
would it be? How can you help make this change? Do you think writing can lead to change? Can writing
really make a difference (for the individual or a larger group)? Why or how?