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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who says, "Little black boys and black girls are able to join hands with little white boys and white girls"?

2. Why at the Lincoln Monument does Gruwell begin to understand why moms cry at school plays and graduations?

3. What road less traveled does a student decide to take Senior year?

4. Why is a student amazed at being chosen to speak in front of Barbara Boxer, their senator?

5. What does a student talk about at the diversity seminar?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it difficult for Gruwell to get permission to teach the students their senior year?

2. What tragic event makes the Freedom Writers realize how fortunate they are?

3. After the students walk down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, what does someone suggest?

4. Why does a student have trouble editing a story about an abortion?

5. What magical event occurs at the Lincoln Memorial?

6. What does the prom queen write about her life?

7. How does Gruwell spend the summer of 1996?

8. Why it Christmas Eve so difficult for the student who writes Diary 113?

9. Why is Gruwell scared sometimes when she drives students home?

10. When they are in Washington, D.C., what do some students do when they see swastikas?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Diary 74, a student's mother tells him/her that "One person can make a difference that can change the world." Why does the student find that statement unbelievable? What are some examples of people the student remembers making great changes? Does the student begin to believe that one person can make a difference that changes the world? Does the student believe that s/he can make that kind of difference or that his/her fellow students can make that type of a difference? Why or why not? Provide examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

What does it mean "World peace is only a dream because people won't allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts"? Explain the meaning of the phrase, and why a student compares people to peanuts. How do peanuts compare to people? What happens if people are allowed to be peanuts? What does people living in harmony have to do with the appearance of peanuts?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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