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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. In the book "Animal Farm", what is a Molly?

2. Who challenges the Freedom Writers to not just talk, but "to walk the walk"?

3. To whom does the class give a copy of their diaries when in Washington, D.C.?

4. What article by Peter Maass does a student read his/her sophomore year?

5. Who helps Gruwell get permission to teach the seniors?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Who is Peter Maass?

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

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

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

10. How does Gruwell spend the summer of 1996?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

In Diary 107, a student compares the students at an elementary school to lotus flowers. Why does the student compare these children to lotus flowers? In what type of environment do lotus flowers grow? How is the environment of a lotus plant similar to the environment the children from the elementary school live in?

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