Unit 3 “Fears, Hardships and Heroism”

Idioms and expressionsTo be in hot water – to be in trouble

Get cold feet – Decide not to do something as you had planned

Pulling the rug from under someone – To upset someone’sstability or to cause their plans to fail

Doing something with all your heart – To do something with100% commitment

Take the plunge – Go for something that makes you nervous

Jump to conclusions - Assume something

Idioms and expressionspart 2

Big deal – Really important

Isn’t the end of the world – Not a big deal

Freaks you out – Something that scares you

Case of the jitters – A temporary state of nervousanxiety or anticipation.

Mark my words – Remember your prediction for later

Just chill – Relax, wait

VocabularyExpressing frustration, empathy and encouragement

Frustration

“I give up!”

“I’m fed up!”

“I’ve had it!”

“I just can’t takeit anymore!”

Empathy

“I know whatyou mean”“That must be discouraging/ frustrating/ disappointing”

Encouragement

“Don’t let it getyou down”

“Don’t give up”

“Hang in there”

Grammar- Clauseswith no matterUse no matter + a noun clause beginning with a questionword to express frustration.

Use a comma before or after clauses with no matter.

No matter how careful I am, I always forget something

No matter what they say, we won’t give up

Question words:

How, when, where, what, who

Grammar- Using so…(that) orsuch…(that) to explain resultsUse so to intesify an adejctive or adverb to explain the result of anextreme situation. That is optional. Don’t use a comma.

It was so stormy I was afraid to get on the plane

Or

It was so stormy that I was afraid to get on the plane

If the adjective is followed directly by a noun, use such, not so.

She had such a bad accident that she never drove again.

If the noun is preceded by many, much, few or little, use so.

We ate so few meals out last month we saved a lot of money.

Grammar - Be careful!

Always use a or an with a singular count nounfollowing such.

She had such a bad accident she never drove again.

Use many and few with count nouns.

The had so many cats their house looked like a zoo.

Use much and Little with non-count nouns.

He had so little time to do the test that he didn’tanswer ten questions.

Vocabulary-Physicaleffects offear

My hands shake

I get palpitations

I get sweaty palms

I get butterflies in my stomach

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Using parts of speech

Adjective Adverb Noun

Brave Bravely Bravery

Confident Confidently Confidence

Courageous Courageously Courage

Fearless Fearlessly Fearlessness

Heroic Heroically Heroism

Willing Willingly Willingness

Reducing adverbial clauses to adverbial phrases

Adverbial clauses can be reducedto adverbial phrases when thesubject of the independent clauseand the adverbial clause are thesame.

Adverbial clauses Reduced to adverbial phrases

When i fell off my bike, I hurt my back Falling off my bike, I hurt my back

When we were eating, we got a call When eating, we got a call

We saw a bear while we were hiking We saw a bear while hiking

Freedom WritersLas siguientes diapositivas son el plot de la película.

In 1994, in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell has been accepted to teach English for at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High School, a once highly acclaimed school, but racial tensions have increased since the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. Erin struggles to connect to her students and she experiences numerous fights between some students, who are in rival gangs.

One night, Eva Benitez her boyfriend, and a friend go to a convenience store. Sindy, a Cambodian refugee, frequents the same convenience store. Grant Rice, an African-American student at Woodrow Wilson, frustrated at losing an arcade game, demands a refund from the store owner. As Grant storms out of the store, Eva's boyfriend, Paco (as retaliation for losing a fight against Grant that took place earlier during a gang fight at Woodrow Wilson), attempts a drive-by shooting to kill Grant, but misses accidentally killing Sindy's boyfriend. As a witness, Eva must testify at court; she intends to guard "her own" in her testimony.

Freedom WritersAt school, Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing by one of her high school students and utilizes it to teach them about the Holocaust, most of which have no knowledge of. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and being evicted. Determined to reform her high school students, Gruwell takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends a lot more time at school, much to the disappointment of her husband . Her students start to behave with respect and discover a lot more. A transformation is specifically visible in one student, Marcus . Gruwell invites various Jewish Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences and requires the students to attend a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Meanwhile, her unique training methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell.

The following school year comes, and Gruwell teaches her class (now sophomores) again, making it the second year that she is their teacher. On the first day of semester, Gruwell makes her class do a "Toast for Change", allowing everyone to open up about their struggles and what they wish to change about themselves.

Freedom WritersLater on, the class makes enough money to have Miep Gies to arrive to the United States and tell her experience when she helped Anne Frank, her family, and the Van Pels hide from the Nazis; she then also persuades to the students that they are heroes and that they "within their own small ways, [can] turn on a small light in a dark room." These two events inspire Eva to break free of the demands of her father to always protect her own rather than tell the truth. At Grant's trial, she shocks the courtroom by revealing that Paco actually killed Sindy's boyfriend in the store; Grant is spared of being convicted and Sindy later forgives Eva. On leaving the court, Eva is attacked and threatened but ultimately spared by members of her gang and ends up going to live with her aunt in order to keep herself safe.

Meanwhile, Gruwell asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary. Her husband divorces her and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. Gruwell fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to permit her to teach her kids' junior and senior year, much to their elation. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully prepared numerous high school students to graduate high school and attend college, for many the first in their families to do so.