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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. What does a student want to tell a prisoner in West Virginia?

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

3. Why is a student asking the question, "To sign or not to sign"?

4. What does a truly self-reliant person do, according to Chapter V?

5. Why does a student say John Tu gives instead of handouts?

Short Essay Questions

1. What magical event occurs at the Lincoln Memorial?

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

3. Why is a student acting as receptionist in the classroom by Chapter VII?

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

5. Why does a student mention that her/his mother said that "Silence gets you nowhere in life"?

6. Who is Peter Maass?

7. Why does reading "Catcher in the Rye" make a student begin to think about the consequences of suicide?

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

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

10. Why does a student have to clean his/her mother's blood off the wall?

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

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 3

Zlata says during her visit that the Bosnian Children become "soldiers" and the soldiers became "children". What does Zlata mean by that statement? What happens to children during a war? How do soldiers behave when trying to achieve their goals? How are the roles reversed?

(see the answer keys)

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