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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 happens to the computers after the students graduate?

2. Why does a teacher say they do not read black literature in class?

3. Why does Gruwell feel guilty when she drives students home if they stay late after school?

4. What Christmas song is twisted during a sorority hazing?

5. Where is Gruwell the day before the junior year begins?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Why is getting kicked off the basketball team eventually a positive thing for Joan?

8. Why does a student refer to choices s/he is making as if the student is a traveler in Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"?

9. Why did a student charge a Coke machine when s/he was young?

10. Why does the character Celie in "The Color Purple" remind a student about her Uncle Joe?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The motto of the American Jewish Committee that issues the Micah Award is "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." What does that statement mean? How does that apply to Zlata? How does that statement apply to Anne Frank and those who helped her family? How does that statement apply to Gruwell and the Freedom Writers?

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

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