Lizzie I think you might like this film I saw the other night about one English teacher's strategies for helping a disturbed and disaffected group of American adolescents/young adults to discover the joy of literature and writing. Many if not most of her students were members of gangs and living very tough lives involving drug and gun related violence, all of whom had been found to be effectively ineducable within the normal school system. She faced stiff opposition from within her own school for adopting these alternative strategies to learning, yet upon success with a particular group, went on to continue to forge a foundation for training other teachers working with similarly challenged students, such alternative learning strategies:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/

http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.5183373/k.DD8B/FWF_Home.htm

CS