View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Gruwell almost take another job the fall of 1995?

2. How difficult is it for a student at Wilson to buy a gun?

3. Why does Gruwell throw out her carefully planned lessons in the fall of 1994?

4. What are the students inspired to do after reading the diaries?

5. How do Gruwell and the students raise money for food and medical supplies for Bosnian kids?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Zlata think about the situation in Kosovo?

2. Why does Renee Firestone's story affect one student?

3. Why is the word 'murder' a shadow hovering over a student's life the fall of 1995?

4. Why is Gruwell stereotyped by some of the other teachers?

5. Why does a student transfer from the Distinguished Scholars program to Gruwell's class?

6. Why is a student excited to meet a Japanese man who was in an internment camp during World War I?

7. Because of the Read-a-Thon for Tolerance, why is Zlata invited to speak to the class?

8. Describe a tour through the Museum of Tolerance.

9. Why does a student decide 'odd' is not a three-letter word, but a seven-letter word?

10. What parallel does Zlata see between herself and the Freedom Writers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The students study Ralph Waldo Emerson when learning about self-reliance. What does this quote by Emerson mean: "Who so should be a man, must be a nonconformist"? How does the quote relate to self-reliance? From their diary entries, list examples of how the students are becoming more self-reliant. How is Gruwell helping the students become more self-reliant? How are the circumstances in their daily lives making the students more self-reliant?

Essay Topic 2

During the spring semester of 1996, Gruwell asks, "If you could live an eternity and not change a thing or exist for the blink of an eye and alter everything, what do you choose?" How does Gruwell relate this statement to the students' lives? What does she tell the students they can do? How are the students to seize the moment? Which is better, to live forever and leave the world the same or live for a moment and change everything?

Essay Topic 3

A theme in the book is the parallel between warfare as experienced by Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic and the violence the students see in their everyday lives. How can the events in Anne's and Zlata's lives be compared to the student's lives? What kind of violence did Frank and Filipovic experience? What type of violence do the students experience? How is the violence that Anne and Zlata experienced similar or dissimilar to what the students face?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,033 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample