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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. Why does a teacher call the diary writer of entry 70 lazy?

2. What novel inspires one of the student's to try to write her own book?

3. How does one student describe Ritalin?

4. What were Rosa Parks and the other blacks called who rode buses to fight racism?

5. After Christmas 1997, what award do the students win?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What magical event occurs at the Lincoln Memorial?

3. Since Europe is over a year away, what takes precedence in Gruwell's plans after graduation?

4. Who is a prisoner who writes the Freedom Writers from West Virginia?

5. Why does a student write that she is a loving girl and mention that she cries when she read "The Color Purple"?

6. Who is Peter Maass?

7. In Diary 103, how many girls does the student know that go to college?

8. Why does a student feel that "National Spokesperson for the Plight of Black People" is stamped on her forehead?

9. What circumstances lead to a student being offered a job from John Tu?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

A mother tells her child in Diary 99 that "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" A person the student looks up to says "Adversity makes warriors of us all." What do each of these statements mean? How can a person become stronger through difficulties? How can adversity make a person a warrior? How does the student feel about these statements at first? What person inspires the student? How does this person help the student to realize the possibilities that life holds?

(see the answer keys)

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