Metacognition:First Semester

My first thoughts of English first semester began way before the beginning of school. It was during summer and I had just reluctantly chosen to read the assigned "The Blue Sweater". The title itself made me satisfied if I were never to open or read about the book. However, forced to finish it, I read. After the slow start, I began to grow more interested into the book. I found myself silently rooting for her and trying to think of advice I could give her to reach her goals. Every one of her success seemed like one of my own. By the books end, I realized surprisingly how much more I enjoyed it than I thought. The more I learned, the less ignorant I grew. This process and the lesson "Don't judge what you don't understand" was something that would continue to appear throughout my sophomore English semester.
Through English class, I noticed the importance of an open-mind and having the willingness to learn. In English, the only way to truly reach an in depth analysis of literature is to keep your mind open and persevere for the meaning or importance of a page, chapter, quote, poem, short story, or any type of art or literature. When I started The Kite Runner I found it to be interesting and enjoyed reading it. But, after some class discussions and conversations, I realized some important and analytical details that I missed. I thought I knew there was all to know about the chapter, but by listening and learning from the observations and connections from Mr. Allen and others, I was able to get more meaning out of the book and enjoy it a lot more. This was even truer with King Lear. While reading it I that I knew exactly what Shakespeare meant and thought I identified most of the important quotes and lines. But once again, I was amazed when others had noticed much more like the style of writing and the poetic language used, and after hearing their findings, I felt more accomplished and enlightened. By listening, wanting to learn, and accepting others thoughts I was able to learn that both analysis and collaboration were tools that could be used to find deeper meaning in literature and life in general.
Finally, my thoughts on the most recent literature, Sophie's world. Frankly, I wasn't to excited because I didn't know philosophy, the main subject of the book, that well. But in hopes of learning it more and perhaps going to like it I read and annotated carefully. With the help of other classmates and Mr. Allen, I was able to understand pretty well the views of each philosopher and apply their views on life to today's issues. During the unit, both Darrell and I found that we continued to agree with the views of the philosopher that we were reading. I couldn't figure out why that was until I remembered that in English, there are no "right" answers. As long as one can support his views, opinions, and ideas with evidence, logic, or science, one can claim whatever they believe. Besides the similarities between the philosophers, I found that the reason why we were always agreeing with the philosopher we were reading is because they were able to persuade us to agree with their ideas using logic and science. Overall, There are many lessons that I’ve learned and traits I’ve adopted when it comes to the first semester that I hope I continue to keep in mind and use during both English and the real world.