Metacognition: Jane Eyre Mash-up

  For my Jane Eyre assignment, I completed a mash-up rather than an essay. Being an unordinary, and new, assignment, it was a challenge for my thinking. 

  I started off the assignment, along with my teammates, by choosing the topic that we wished to make a point about, love. We then made a terrible mistake. We decided the point we wanted to make about our topic. We had an end point, and set out to find quotes to reach this endpoint.

  What we realized, after finding quotes, is that that endpoint wasn't accessible, it wasn't a valid point. In other words, the support for our pre-determined claim convinced us to change that claim. So we did. But once again we ran in to the same problem.

   What we resolved to do was to to put our quotes into mash-up form. Forget about a claim. Sure, remember the topic, but forget the claim. This allowed us to stick with the quotes we liked, and ultimately explore love more thoroughly. In the end we did come to point, we created a claim, but not one we would have reached without relying on the mash-up and the quotes. 

   This whole process was tiring and challenging for my thinking. I learned that rather than following a gps in my head, I needed to drive around a little bit. By taking turns when they arose, just catching the green lights, I got to a really cool destination. 

   I was very surprised to learn that just letting my ideas flow like that would be helpful. I'm used to the essay thinking. That is, I'm used to creating a claim first, and then supporting it. In fact, most of what I do in life revolves around similar processes. 

   For example, when I'm playing soccer, I follow this process. I want to help my team score a goal. My thesis: the best way to score a goal is (this part depends on the coach, formation, players, etc) blank. Then, I support this thesis.

   But perhaps learning to use my brain in a way that reflects how it was used for the mash-up, great benefits will be had. Maybe, if while playing soccer, rather than playing to the pre-determined strategy, I adapt to the changing game, I flow with my surroundings, that goal can be scored, and I will learn a new way to get a goal scored, different from the original thesis.

   Even writing an essay, this process could help. I could pick out my favorite quotes that speak to a theme, an then discover my claim.

   I like how my mind can adapt to this new method of thinking, but I would like to have a more flexible brain. By habit, I suppose, it has become too ordered, and, seemingly paradoxical, to improve my thinking I need to learn to make it less ordered. That's truly meta.