Rafferdy Coleman

7/15/2016
Project 9

Writers

For the final assignment I chose to complete project 9. This project required me to pick
two movies, compare and contrast the two movies, and incorporate motivational theories that we
have discussed throughout this class. The two movies that I chose were Freedom Writers and
Dead Poets Society. These are two of my all-time favorite movies. Also, these two movies have
very powerful messages. The movies also have very impactful characters who allow you to
understand their situations. I felt like these two movies should be shown to new educators, and
educators who are at the end of their career, so that they do not forget why they became
educators. Throughout this paper I am going to discuss the main idea of each movie, the reason
why I chose each movie, compare and contrast the movies, and relate various motivational
theories to the movies.
First I want to give you the main ideas of the movies. Freedom Writers is about a
Caucasian women Mrs. Gruwell (played by Hilary Swank) who is from a very affluent
background. Mrs. Gruwells father is a part of her life, and has made a lot of money. Mrs.
Gruwell has the intellectual capability (based on comments her father makes) to go to law
school, be a doctor, etc. However, with the support of her husband, she wants to teach. She
applies for a school in Long Beach, California. This school had recently been integrated, so the
more troubled students are now attending the school. There are gangs in this community and
school. The gangs are made up by ethnicity. Mrs. Gruwell is assigned freshman English in room
203. The kids do not respect her because she does not know what they go through on a daily
basis. After what seems to be weeks of push back she plays a game with them. Mrs. Gruwell
asks the kids questions and they have to step to the line. The kids start noticing that they really
arent different. Throughout the movie the class becomes a family. She introduces her students to
Holocaust survivors, takes them on trips, works two jobs for them, and most importantly she
does not lie to them. Everything she says she will do, she does. Mrs. Gruwell will go on to teach
the kids for four years. As the movie goes along, Mrs. Gruwell is met with resistance from her
department chair (who would later be relieved of her duties by the board of education). Mrs.
Gruwell gives the students a journal and they write in them on a daily basis. This is how she
understands who they are. At the end of the movie she publishes their book.
Dead Poets Society is about a teacher, Mr. Keating (played by Robin Williams), who
teaches at an all-boys prep school, Welton Academy. This school is an elite Catholic prep school,
so it has a lot of rules. There is no creative thinking allowed in this school. Mr. Keating shows up
and wants the students to start thinking outside the box. Also, he shows them that it is ok to be
creative. How does he do this? He does this through poetry. He shows the boys that they can be
more than what their parents want them to be. As a result, the boys use poetry to show their
creative sides. One of the boys ends up committing suicide at the end because his father does not
allow him to make his own choices and removes him from the school without considering his
sons wishes. Mr. Keating is fired, but he knows that the boys still respect him for everything.
This movie shows students that it is okay to be extraordinary in life. Thinking outside the box
and being creative is how the best minds work.
When I was looking through the list of movies, these were the two that jumped out at me.
The reason why I chose Freedom Writers is simple. I felt like I was the main character. I am a
Caucasian male who has only taught inner-city children who live below the poverty line. I have
never taught a student who was Caucasian. Like Mrs. Gruwell, I teach very tough kids. I
remember my first day of school like it was yesterday. Kids were all out of order, yelling, not
listening, and being disrespectful. It took me a while to earn their trust. They thought I was just
going to leave within a week. This was the same group that had four history teachers the year
before. Why should they trust me? Like Mrs. G (the abbreviated name that the kids give
Gruwell), I worked hard to earn the respect of the kids. This would eventually pay off for me.
Test scores at the end of the year proved that I had reached them. The students went from 15
percent passing the year before to 60 percent passing the first year with me. I taught those
students for two years. Our relationship is still strong. The kids are now in 11th grade at various
south Atlanta schools and I attend every event that I can to show them that I still support them. I
chose this movie because in a way it is me.
The reason why I chose Dead Poets Society, other than the fact that I enjoy Robin
Williams, is because I felt a connection with his character, John Keating (the teacher). I try to
teach the way he does. I want my students to think outside the box and be creative. I thought that
Mr. Keating pushed his students to be creative thinkers through reading and writing poems. This
is what I do or try to do in my classroom. I allow students to look at every angle of history and
decide if they agree with it. My students are allowed to challenge my teachings as long as they
have evidence to back up their research. Like Mr. Keating, I do not want my students to allow
society to kill their creative instincts. For me, inspiring students to think creatively and express
their thoughts is the most important part of my job as their teacher.
Comparing and contrasting the two movies allowed me to have a deeper understanding of
the two. These two movies have a lot in common. However, I did find a lot of differences in
them as well. First we will analyze how the two movies different components (teachers,
students) compare to each other. Then we will analyze how they contrast.
In both movies you have teachers who want nothing more than to see their students
succeed. Mrs. Gruwell is constantly going to the board for help, working three jobs to ensure that
her students have materials, asking her dad to help, staying late. Mr. Keating is working to see
his kids succeed at being creative thinkers, constantly pushing them pass their comfort limits
with his unconventional assignments. Next, both teachers have unconventional methods of
teaching. In Mrs. Gruwells class you can see the students dancing, debating, and acting. In Mr.
Keatings class he has them outside kicking a soccer ball while reciting poetry and even standing
on desks to see a different perspective of life.
I will now compare the two group of students. The students in Freedom Writers want
someone to care for them and help them. You can see this in the beginning when they are being
disrespectful and they realize that Mrs. Gruwell is not going to leave. The students in Dead Poets
Society want someone who will allow them to be creative. You can see this in the beginning
when Neil, the main character, is talking to another student about being taken off of the
newspaper because his dad does not want him to do that. Both groups of students are looking for
someone to connect with them and understand their feelings.
Both movies follow one student specifically. In Freedom Writers, you follow Eva
Benitez. In Dead Poets Society, you follow Neil Perry. These two are very similar to each other.
Eva is controlled by her family on a daily basis. An example of this is when her family wants her
to specifically say something on the stand when she testifies. Neil is controlled by his father. An
example of this would be when his dad takes him off the newspaper without speaking to Neil, or
when his dad does not want him to act.
As much as Mrs. Gruwell and Mr. Keating are alike, they are also different. Mrs. Gruwell
teaches at an inner city school in California. Mr. Keating teaches at an all-boys school in the
Northeast region of the United States. Mrs. Gruwells students are diverse in ethnicity. Mr.
Keatings students are just Caucasian boys. What the two teachers are trying to accomplish is
vastly different. Mrs. Gruwell is trying to get her students on par academically with the rest of
the school. She is also trying to ensure that her students come together as a family and not
separate into gangs. She is also trying to inspire the kids to be better members of society. Mr.
Keating is trying to get his students to be creative thinkers and be more individualistic. He wants
them to realize that intelligence does not have to be learned from a textbook. There is a good
example when he rips out the introduction to the poetry section of the textbook. He is trying to
get students who almost totally conform to a group dynamic to think and express themselves as
individuals.
The students are vastly different as well. The students from Freedom Writers are from
low income, single parent homes. They do not get a lot of parental support. This can be seen
when the students are having family night and no one shows up to Mrs. Gruwells class. These
students are the product of public schools, so anyone in the district can go to school there.
Academically these students are low, even though they do eventually improve. The students in
Dead Poets Society are from affluent backgrounds. These students have two parent households.
These students academically are overachievers and want to have the best test scores. Also, the
students go to private school, so not just anyone can get into the school. Their parents are
involved in every decision they make.
The two main student characters, Eva Benitez (Freedom Writers) and Neil Perry (Dead
Poets Society), are vastly different. Eva was in a gang, and her father is the leader and is in
prison. She lives in an apartment. Eva also struggles in school (she does eventually start liking
the school). Neil, comes from a household with two parents. His parents own a two story house
and have money. Neil is academically the top of his class. However, his fate takes a different
turn. Unlike Eva who goes on to graduate, Neil takes his life over the pressures of his family.
Throughout the movies you can see motivational theories used. One of the theories that I
saw being practiced in Freedom Writers was Teacher-Students Interaction. This theory is based
on how students and teachers interact with each other. This theory shows how the development
of the two relationships impacts the classroom. Having knowledge of this theory is key to
understanding how to effectively plan lessons, group students, motivate, and engage student.
Mrs. Gruwell had to use this theory to be effective. She was different than her students, so if she
had not used this theory, the outcome could have been very different. This theory was key for
Mrs. Gruwell to have her students respect her. Teacher student interaction is key for any
classroom to work, In turn, teachers interactions and relationships with students can have
important effects on students motivation and engagement in learning (192). If a teacher can
effectively do this, he or she will have success. We see this manifest throughout the movie. First,
Mrs. Gruwell did not connect with her students. Then we see her exhaust every option to engage
her students. She uses Tupac songs in her class. She does the line game to understand her
students. She works three jobs to ensure her student have new textbooks. Through this, her
students start to trust her. Her classroom goes from a zoo to well managed and productive. The
Teacher-Student Interaction theory shows that there can be issues if this theory is not used in
your classroom. If Mrs. Gruwell would not have taken the time to understand her students
personally, then she would not have been able to effectively engage her students and understand
how to help them academically.
While analyzing a theory for Dead Poets Society, I thought that Teacher Self-Efficacy
would appropriately work. This theory is a personal belief of a teachers capability to help
students learn. Basically it is knowing that you have the ability to help kids learn. This can be
used academically or non-academically as long as teaching is being done.
Teacher Self-Efficacy is not used by Mr. Keating in academics (he wants to teach the
kids to be creative). He has the students create poetry. Even if it is simple, he finds the beauty in
it. His confidence to teach kids more than academics is shown in this movie. Mr. Keating does
not deter from teaching the kids in an unconventional way, even when he is being questioned by
the other educators. This theory is manifested throughout the movie because Mr. Keating gets
more creative with his unconventional style of teaching. He has the kids kick a soccer ball while
reciting poetry. He has the kids stand on desks and move around outside. Then the students start
up the Dead Poets Society after they read about it in an old yearbook where they find out that
Mr. Keating was once a member of this group. This shows us that Mr. Keatings Self-Efficacy
prospered throughout the entire movie. His confidence in the power of creative thinking inspires
his students to reach beyond their conventional views of life and find their passions.
The last theory I noticed could be found in both movies. The theory is Teacher
Expectation. Teacher Expectation is teachers forming expectations for their students,
communicating it to them, and how the expectations affected outcomes.
 Mr. Keating keeps his expectations very clear. There is no right or wrong in poetry. An
example of this would be when the students are standing up reciting their poems, one students
poem was two lines. Mr. Keating explains that some of the simplest poetry can be the best.
Another student had to have help with his poem, so Mr. Keating was spinning him around telling
him just to say things as they popped into his mind. When he was done, he had created a poem.
Throughout the movie, Mr. Keating would keep referring to the expectation of being a free
thinker. You can see this manifest throughout the movie. At first the boys were hesitant to rip out
the pages in their book and be creative. By the end of the movie, the boys were creating their
own poems.
Mrs. Gruwell shows a lot of different expectations. The best example was when she
passed out journals and told the kids to write in them every day. The students actually wrote in
them. Another was actually what the students expected of her. When she mentioned a Holocaust
survivor, the students wanted her to come speak and they expected that Mrs. Gruwell could get
her there. She worked hard and got her there. This would benefit Mrs. Gruwells class because
they would have trust instilled in them. The final example is towards the end of the movie when
one of her students showed up late and gives himself an F on his assignment. She pulls him to
the side and tells him that he will not fail and he will come to class because its a sign of respect.
She sets a clear expectation that the student can achieve.
In conclusion, I have discussed the main idea of each movie, the reason why I chose
each movie, compared and contrasted the movies, and related various motivational theories to
the movies. Both of these movies have a lot of important ideas that can help classroom teachers.
There are endless theories that one can pull out of these movies. These movies are definitely
used to inspire the next Mrs. Gruwell or Mr. Keating.