Metacognition: Kite Runner Essay

Today, I began the first part of my Kite Runner essay, the evidence plan. I decided to write my essay on secrets and the role that they play in people's lives. At first, I wasn't sure how to split up my body paragraphs, but i came up with an idea to write two about secrets that were kept during the story and one about secrets that were revealed.
Once I had a thesis established and an idea for my body paragraphs, I needed to find examples in the text of both kept and revealed secrets. This wasn't too difficult because of the abundant secrets that were in Kite Runner. The trickier part was to figure out exactly how these different secrets changed the course of people's lives.
While thinking about the way that secrets changed the characters' lives in the story, I began to think about how secrets change people's lives in the real world. It was interesting to think about because secrets aren't usually a topic I find myself thinking about unless I have one myself.

Best of Week: Collaborating in Groups

While discussing the TED project this week, many different ideas and concerns came about that dealt with the challenges of working in groups. Because face-to-face group time is limited, many of us were concerned with getting group members to contribute to the project equally. The most practical solution that we came up with was a form of motivation, individual grades.
In a perfect world, the lure of knowledge would be enough to get all group members to contribute to the project equally. But, previous experience shows us that this is simply not enough for some people. Students, especially academites, are concerned with getting good grades. If a grade is put on the line, most students will be compelled to pull through with their share of work in any project.
Collaborating in groups is a skill that we will all need to use for the rest of our lives, whether it is for a school project or a major business endeavor. There will always be some people who don't seem to work as diligently as others to complete the task, but this week, a possible solution was discovered. Motivation.

Change of Mind: Kite Runner

Although we have not yet finished reading Kite Runner, the story has already caused me to have a change of mind. I have always been good at keeping secrets, whether they are my own or somebody else's. Even though none of these secrets have been as life-changing as the one between Amir and Hassan, I believed that keeping things to myself was a useful skill and a good way to live. Kite Runner taught me a lot about the value of a secret and the effects they can have on people's lives. Seeing the emotional torture that Hassan endured because Amir didn't tell anyone about what happened showed me that secrets can change lives. I also observed that secrets can change multiple people's lives at the same time, even without everybody involved realizing so.
Now that I have this new view on secrets and their capabilities, I will think twice about the possible outcomes that keeping information myself could cause. I hope that I never have to deal with a situation as severe as the one that Hassan went through, but I will treat other situations with the care which that one deserved.