Erin Gruwell began teaching a class of at-risk students in Long Beach, California who were divided along racial lines. She broke down barriers by validating students' experiences, motivating them with relevant material, and creating a safe environment for collaboration. Gruwell encouraged students to share their stories, celebrate diversity and hold each other accountable. This approach engaged the students and helped them feel empowered, leading them to dub themselves the "Freedom Writers" and inspiring educational change.

1. Erin Gruwell &
TheFreedom
Writers
experience

2. • The first day of Erin Gruwell as a student teacher inWoodrow
Wilson High School in long beach, California was not
necessarily a welcome dear teacher.

3. • The first day of Erin Gruwell as a student teacher inWoodrow
Wilson High School in long beach, California was not
necessarily a welcome dear teacher.
• Ms. Gruwell received a class fragmentized as into small
islands.There were several groups divided by racial and ethnic
matters. Latinos, niggers, eastern immigrants and a little
white people.

4. • The first day of Erin Gruwell as a student teacher inWoodrow
Wilson High School in long beach, California was not
necessarily a welcome dear teacher.
• Ms. Gruwell received a class fragmentized as into small
islands.There were several groups divided by racial and ethnic
matters. Latinos, niggers, eastern immigrants and a little
white people.
• Gruwell entered into the class 203 inWoodrow school as a just
graduated teacher looking for experience and on the end of
the day after being mocked, scorned and threatened by her
students, she return home with two choices in mind.

5. 1. Giving up her teaching
career.

6. 1. Giving up her teaching
career.
2. Going on not involving with
the students, just give the
subject, period.

7.  But these two choices seemed
too unacceptable for Erin
Gruwell, then she simply
created a new option. She
decided to interact with the
students, trying to change that
hostile environment.

8.  Her success is now celebrated
around the world as a unique and
amazing educational experience.
She and her students of classroom
203 turned into an example of
engagement against discrimination
and social struggle. Considering
that all her students were involved
in gang fights in long beach area.

9.  Gruwell and her group o f students
engaged by their own succeeded
experience dubbed themselves as
“FreedomWriters” inspired by the
experience lived for group of Afro-
Amricans in 1961 that decided to
put on proof a law which banned
segregation on busses.They
became known as “Freedom Riders”.

10. Freedom Riders – The inspiration

11. Long Beach Riots (1992)
The Scenery

12. Long Beach Riots (1992)

13. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Educational
Success
Celebrate
Success
Build
Bridges
Believe in
your
students
Create
Community
Encourage
Collaboration
Expect
Accountability
Motivate
your
students
Break
down
comfort
zones
Establish a Safe
Environment
Validate
prior
knowledge
Promote
Diversity
Teach
Tolerance

14. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Believe
in your
students

15. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Break down
comfort
zones

16. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Establish a
Safe
Environment

17. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Validate
prior
knowledge

18. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Motivate
your
students

19. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Encourage
Collaboration

20. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Teach
Tolerance

21. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Promote
Diversity

22. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Create
Community

23. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Build
Bridges

24. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Expect
Accountability

25. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Celebrate
Success

26. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Believe
in your
students

27. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Dispite Gruwell was in charge of students considered unteachable
 She always believed all her students were capable of learning
Believe in your students
“[Ms.Gruwell]told me
she believed in me. I
have never heard those
words from
anyone...specially a
teacher.”-Diary #23

28. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Break down
comfort
zones

29. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 On her 1st day of class Ms. Gruwell found her students sat in
comfort zones based on race, gang affiliation and familiar faces
 Since then she realized that she need to break down those barriers
to create an inclusive environment.
Break Down Comfort Zones
“on the streets, you kick it in
different' hoods, depending on
your race or where you are from.
And at school, we separate
ourselves from people who are
different from us.”-Diary #3

30. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Establish a
Safe
Environment

31. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Ms. Gruwell realized that most of her students come from
extremely difficult home environment sometimes very dangerous
 Once she notice that her classroom was a kind of refuge from
home, she tried to create an environment where they could feel
comfortable
Establish a Safe Environment
“I walk in the [class]room
and I feel as though all the
problems in my life are not
important anymore. I am
home.” – Diary # 24

32. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Validate
prior
knowledge

33. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 If Ms. Gruwell’s students weren’t experts as book
readers or grammar, they had PhD in street life
 Thinking like that Ms. Gruwell was able to make
connections between their previous experience
and the new skills they were developing in the
classroom,
Validate prior knowledge
“it’s amazing how savvy they
are.They ‘re walking
encyclopedia when it comes to
pop culture, quoting the lines
from the movies verbatim or
reciting every lyric from the
latest rap CD... I think the key
is to build on what they
already know.”-Ms.Gruwell

34. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Motivate
your
students

35. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 When one of her students asked: “why do we have to read books by dead
white guys in tights?”
 She realized that she needed to find material that would invest them in the
outcome of their work. So she introduced her students to authors whose
work could be felt by the students as they were talking about the student’s
own lives.
Motivate your students
“this story[the last Spin] is a trip. I’ve
never read something in school that
related to something that happened in
my life.” – Diary # 14

36. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Encourage
Collaboration

37. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Ms. Gruwell encouraged her students to work in collaborative
groups.
 It demonstrated them that teamwork can be more
effective than working alone.
Encourage Collaboration
“We learn
together, we
laugh together,
we cry together,
and we wouldn’t
have it any other
way.”-Diary #142

38. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Teach
Tolerance

39. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Teaching tolerance and acceptance of one another was the key
component of what made “the FreedomWriters’ experience so
unique
TeachTolerance
“I believe that I will never
again feel
uncomfortable with a
person of different
race.” – Diary #116

40. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Promote
Diversity

41. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Ms. Gruwell created an environment where the students could
share their life stories.
 Her goal was to embrace every element of diversity, be it economic,
ethic, religious, or academic and celebrate the richness of those
differences.
Promote Diversity
“The diversity of ideas, traditions
and spirit is the true purpose of the
Freedom Writers”- Diary #77

42. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Create
Community

43. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 The FreedomWriters treated one another as confidents and began
to see themselves as a family. Instead of competing, they helped
one another both inside and outside the classroom.
 Working as a community for a common goal made change possible.
Create Community
“through their writing, they shared a
common identity, which united them into
a community that connected them, not
separated them from the world.” – Epilogue,
p. 276

44. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Build
Bridges

45. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 While Ms. Gruwell taught their students, she made part of he educational mission
to bring parts of the outside world to her students.Things that they never had
been exposed yet, into the classroom.
 The students need a sense of education as continuity . It is not confined into the
classroom or the school.
Build Bridges

46. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Expect
Accountability

47. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Ms. Gruwell found out that if she make her students accountable
and have high expectations, they will rise to meet them
 She always expected them to succeed and they did.
Expect Accountability
“[Ms. Gruwell] showed me that
excuses will not bring about
success and that adversity is not
something you walk with but
something you leap over.” – Diary
#157

48. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Celebrate
Success

49. Gruwell Secret Sauce
 Failure in Ms. Gruwell’s class was not an option. By developing a
comprehensive curriculum that engage, enlightened and
empowered her students, she was able to help them make valuable
connections between the classroom and their lives.
Celebrate Success
“Historians say history repeats itself, but
in my case I have managed to break the
circle because I am going to graduate
from high school and go to college, an
opportunity my parents never had.” – Diary
#105

50. Gruwell Secret Sauce
1. Believe in your students
2. Break down comfort zones
3. Establish a Safe Environment
4. Validate prior knowledge
5. Motivate your students
6. Encourage Collaboration
7. Teach Tolerance
8. Promote Diversity
9. Create Community
10. Build Bridges
11. Expect Accountability
12. Celebrate Success

51. Gruwell Secret Sauce
E
E
E

52. Gruwell Secret Sauce
Stage Process
1.Engage your students
2.Enlighten your students
3.Empower your students

53. Engage your students

54. Engage your students
 Show your students the objectives of what
they are learning.

55. Engage your students
 Show your students the objectives of what
they are learning.
 Create an atmosphere in which the students
can share their opinions.

56. Engage your students
 Show your students the objectives of what
they are learning.
 Create an atmosphere in which the students
can share their opinions.
 Give them concrete reasons to seek
excellence.

57. Engage your students
 Show your students the objectives of what
they are learning.
 Create an atmosphere in which the students
can share their opinions.
 Give them concrete reasons to seek
excellence.
 Help them make connections between who
they are as individuals and who they are as
students.

58. How to engage your
students

59. How do you engage your
students?

60. Enlighten your
students

61. Enlighten your
students
 Give your students all the support they need to
be able to learn

62. Enlighten your
students
 Give your students all the support they need to
be able to learn
 Create forms of receiving their feedbacks. Use
their feedbacks

63. Enlighten your
students
 Give your students all the support they need to
be able to learn
 Create forms of receiving their feedbacks. Use
their feedbacks
 Figure out the best way to teach each student

64. Enlighten your
students
 Give your students all the support they need to
be able to learn
 Create forms of receiving their feedbacks. Use
their feedbacks
 Figure out the best way to teach each student
 Explore their own opinions and reactions within
a “real world” context.

65. How to enlighten your
students

66. How do you enlighten
your students?

67. Empower your students

68. Empower your students
 Push your students to put into test what they
have been learning.

69. Empower your students
 Push your students to put into test what they
have been learning.
 Give them security to act by themselves

70. Empower your students
 Push your students to put into test what they
have been learning.
 Give them security to act by themselves
 Encourage them to deal with the frustrations.

71. How to empower your
students

72. How do you empower
your students?

74. Erin Gruwell and the FreedomWriters
have received many awards, including
the prestigious “Spirit of Anne Frank
Award”, and have appeared on “The
OprahWinfrey Show, Primetime, Good
Morning America and theView, to name
a few. Erin Gruwell is also a charismatic
motivational speaker who spreads her
dynamic massage to students, teachers
and businesspeople around the world.
She leads the nonprofit Freedom
Writers Foundation and lives in
Southern California.

76.  Erin Gruwell and the FreedomWriters had put the
experience lived into the classroom 203 in a book
called “The FreedomWriters Diary”.
 In 2007 the film maker Richard Lagravenese made
a movie based on the diaries written by the
freedomWriters.

77. Sources:
 Books:
 “The FreedomWriters Diary – Erin gruwell
and the freedom writers foundation
 “the FreedomWriters Diary, teacher's
guide - Erin Gruwell and the freedom writers
foundation
 Teach with your heart – Erin Gruwell.
 Movie:
 The freedomWriters –
directed and written by Richard Lagravenese

78. Conceived by André Stanley
 Based on Erin Gruwell’s books
 andrestanleybrazil@gmail.com