Justin Gruwell Room 203 Summary

Erin Gruwell was able to break barriers in her classroom for her students in room 203. First, Ms. Gruwell had the students play a game of similarities where they stepped up to a piece of tape in the middle of the classroom when she gave statement of life experiences. Many of the students in Ms. Gruwell’s classroom experience loss of a family member, friend, etc., exposed to violence at a young age, was involved in criminal activates, and other life experiences of loss and grief. Ms. Gruwell provide her students journals, without specific topics, she asked her students to make daily entries. Ms. Gruwell stated that their journals would be read by herself only, if they chose to let her read it. Ms. Gruwell provided a placement in a file cabinet for the students to place their journals. These journals for students in room 203 became therapeutic. Students where able to express their feelings, thoughts, stories, in their own words on their own terms. These journals in Ms. Gruwell’s class, gave the students empowerment to step out of their comfort circle to advocate for their needs and wants with their education and experiences. …show more content…
In expressive writing individuals are able to express their emotions in their own words without using another person’s thoughts to provoke their thoughts (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005). Narrative therapy allows for individuals to free drive their interventions of grief and loss on their own terms. Journaling gives individuals the words they are seeking to be able to accept the loss and eventually be able to move towards reintegrating themselves back in daily life functions. Journaling can take on many forms from writing daily, three times a week, once a month, etc. Writing is considered a creative way for an individual to grieve of a loss of person, external object,