Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

I really liked the idea of this assignment, bringing together characters and having them interact in new ways. I also liked how we could choose our own groups and topics that interested us most. I believe my group's experience was very different than other groups, however, because of our extracurricular challenges. The week the project was due was tech week for GBN's spring play, Cinderella, which Kyle, Melanie and I all had roles in. We asked Mr. Allen for an extension, which he generously granted us, but we really did not have much of a chance to work on the project during the week, with rehearsal every night until 10 p.m. We finally all got together on Sunday afternoon and spent quite a few hours adding, editing and finalizing our transcript.

It was a fun experience to create a discussion. Normally, when writing a paper, it's all from one point of view, very direct, and very structured. For this project, I tried to think of things from multiple angles; rather than just stating opinion or fact, I also made sure it fit with who the character was. For example, the views on feminism in 18th century could not really be expressed by our faux Academy student, and some of the Academy book connections would be better explained by the student, rather than Charlotte or Jane. I also liked writing it because there wasn't a specific structure that needed to be followed; we could just let the conversation flow, while also incorporating our connections and quotes. I won't really know how successful it was until we receive our grades, but if we did it correctly, I would definitely say that it was a much more enjoyable and free-formed way to reflect on a book read in class.

I liked the connections I made, especially with Sophie's World. I realized it's easier to connect two books with a pre-established theme, rather than to just try to find any similarities. I also especially liked when I read through the previous work and helped connect the sub-conversations while preserving the overall theme. I'm pretty happy with my work; I just wish our group could have met together more often, because on a collaborative project like this, it really does work better when the group members are physically together.