Coach Carter Writing Prompts (11/12 English)

In Friday's class, a very persuasive young man convinced me to let us watch more of the 2005 movie Coach Carter so that we would have lots to write about in our next writing prompt. First, bravo for showing me your persuasive speaking and listening skills! I love how you showed our class we were part of a team making a group decision.

Now the time has come to discuss what we've learned in our most recent viewing. Please pick one of the following prompts and answer in your journals. If you finish early, please go back and answer my most recent questions, or pick another prompt!

Questions:
1) Why does Coach Carter ask, "What's your deepest fear?" to his athletes? Does this motivate them? Why or why not?

2) Is a Coach's job just "to win basketball games" like Carter's principal suggests?

3) How does a Coach know to give a player a second chance?

4) What does it mean to act like winners? Cruz: "Coach, we undefeated; we won the Championship. Isn't that what you wanted? Winners?"

11/12 English: The Coaches that Inspire Us

Writing Prompt:
Over the last couple of weeks, I've really enjoyed getting to read your journals from the Freedom Writers activity.  I've learned a lot about each of you, and one thing has become pretty apparent: some of the most influential people in your lives are teachers and coaches.

For the next week, we will be exploring this topic--the importance and impact coaches have on us--and looking into the ways you have been motivated and inspired to do your best.

While you can write any anything about the scenes we saw from the movie today, here are two writing prompts to get you started. Please pick one of the following and write in your personal journals.

1) Compare Coach Carter with one of your coaches (e.g., basketball, baseball, soccer).

2) Why does Coach Carter's players do what he says? They're resistant at first, but begin to follow his rules and instructions. Why is that?