Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing Assignment

To prepare for the Jane Eyre writing assignment, my team members and I held a verbal discussion about some of the themes in the book, acting as Charlotte Brontë, the Academy student, and the publisher. We recorded the conversation with a digital recorder and composed a transcript of the discussion. I found this process very beneficial in that it allowed me to realize the roles of each of our characters in the discussion as well as address the themes and elements of the book from these varying perspectives. The discussion itself provided a solid foundation of ideas that formed our writing assignment.

This entire process exposed my brain's methods of learning and understanding and I've come to the conclusion that the best way for me to learn or unearth new ideas is through discussion. The practice of bouncing ideas off of one another was incredible because there were a few occasions where I realized something I hadn't before. It was fantastic.

As far as writing the transcript itself, I would look at the topic being discussed and see how I could weave in an important theme all the while making each character remain true to themselves. I found that I was able to have each character's defining traits complement or challenge the others'. For example, sometimes I would have the curious nature of the Academy student question the motives of the author, Brontë.

Overall, I liked my mind's ability to piece together multiple levels of information, especially from varying perspectives.