On Thursday, we watched Freedom Writers during class, and this extended beyond our usual class time, to 6pm. (Those of you who were unable to stay for the conclusion can finish watching it at the library, where the film is on 2-hour reserve for our course, at the front circulation desk. You may also rent the film on Amazon for around $3.)

This is, needless to say, a very different film from The Class, even though both center on the experiences of a teacher in an inner-city classroom. In both cases, the teacher encounters teenagers who for various reasons are resistant to learning the reading and writing instruction the teacher is responsible for (French in France, English in the US). What seems to be the reason for the students’ resistance in Ms. Gruwell’s class, and why, as the movie presents it, does she succeed? What do you think audiences are expected to ‘learn’ from their viewing of the film? (Though I introduced similarities between the two films here, I’d like your response to focus on Freedom Writers rather than doing a comparison-and-contrast of the two movies. We will do that in class discussion on Tuesday.)