1. Kungshen English Book 6 Lesson 1 Erin Gruwell Helped the Students Who Had Given Up on Hope
Class:______No:_____ Name:_______ Date:2015.01.28 Fortuna http://www.slideshare.net/fortunalu
TEDxConejo - Erin Gruwell - The Freedom Writers Link: http://goo.gl/Cz8IiO
Pre‐reading Task One: Please watch the video and write down as many keypoints you
listened to as much and then discuss with your group.
★ Line Game in Freedom Writers http://goo.gl/Y3OUg2
While‐reading Task Two: Group leader assigns your members to read one part of the reading, consult
the dictionary, and then discuss it together.
Ms. Gruwell began student teaching in 1994 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach,
California. She was assigned low‐performing students in the school. One student, a boy she referred to
as "Sharaud," seemed determined to make her life miserable. He had transferred to Wilson from a rival
high school where he had allegedly threatened his teacher with a gun. However, a few months into the
school year one of her other students passed a note depicting Sharaud (an African American) with
extremely large lips. Gruwell told the class that that was the type of caricature that the Nazis had used
during the Holocaust. When only one of the students knew what the Holocaust was, Gruwell changed
the theme of her curriculum to tolerance. Gruwell took the students to see Schindler's List, bought new
books out of her own pocket and invited guest speakers.
After her year of student teaching, Gruwell returned to Wilson as a full teacher, this time with a
class of sophomores. Her fall semester got off to a rocky start due to student protests of Proposition
187. But Gruwell persevered and reached her students by asking them to keep journals and make
movies of their lives, and by relating the family feud in Romeo and Juliet to a gang war. She also had the
students read books written by and about other teenagers in times of war, such as The Diary of a Young
Girl, Zlata's Diary and Night. Writing journals became a solace for many of the students, and because
the journals were shared anonymously, teenagers who once refused to speak to someone of a different
race became like a family.
In the fall of 1995, Gruwell gave each of her students a bag full of new books and had them make a
toast for change. After that, she saw a turnaround in them. The students went on to surprise everyone.
All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Gruwell
Please choose ten new words as your word mat.
Ex. change (v) 改變
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

2. Kungshen English Book 6 Lesson 1 Erin Gruwell Helped the Students Who Had Given Up on Hope
Class:______No:_____ Name:_______ Date:2015.01.28 Fortuna http://www.slideshare.net/fortunalu
Task Three:
Discuss what Erin Gruwell did to change her students’ lives. Please list as many as possible.
Task Four:
Please pick one sentece which impressed you most, underline, write down and illustrate it.
REMEMBER to translate it into Chinese as well.
The sentence you choose in the reading Illustrate it!
Ex.
All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high
school and many went on to attend college.
所有 150 自由寫手都從高中畢業, 而且很多人都
繼續上大學。
Task Five: Please translate the following two senteces and discuss the usage “had transferred”, “had
allegedly threatened”, and “had used”
1. He had transferred to Wilson from a rival high school where he had allegedly threatened his teacher
with a gun. 中文：______________________________________________________________
2. Gruwell told the class that that was the type of caricature that the Nazis had used during the Holocaust.
中文：______________________________________________________________
★ Discuss the usage “had transferred”, “had allegedly threatened”, and “had used”
After‐reading
Think! If you become a teacher, what will you want them to learn? Share with your group.