Week 4 Metacognitive Experience

Thinking about your thinking?  What does that really mean to you as a reader?  To me it’s regurgitating all of the information that you have read and are able to process it in such a way that it can be summarized.  If you read 50 pages from a chapter book, will you be able to stop and ask yourself what exactly did you read and be able to come up with all the main points?  For me, I would need to stop and write small cliff notes to help me remember what important events occurred in the section that I am reading.  But for the novel Persepolis I actually didn’t have trouble thinking about what I read.  What helped me out a lot was that it was all very visual.   I noticed recently that I am a visual learner.  Looking at pictures makes a big difference in my comprehension.  If I can see pictures or illustrations, I will be able to understand it much more fluently versus hearing it. 

Now as I reflect on the whole book, I can think about all of the events that happened.  It must be so difficult for a child to have to be put through so much exposure to violence and politics.  Even for adults, we have a hard time accepting the truth that there will always be conflicts about money and power.  But for Marjane , she had to sit back and watch as her country was split in half by the Government.  While half of the country rebelled from the Emperor Shah and his stupid rules.  Others accepted his laws and encouraged his new ways.  It makes me think about how a child’s mind still has not fully developed yet to understand about all the cruel truth’s about this world, and that there really isn’t a Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.  Nor is this world a happy place where everyone gets a long and lives happily ever after.  We live in a horrible society that targets minorities, and discriminates them from being equal.  Who knows when things will ever change?  But for Marjane, she has a lot of issues to deal with like missing out on her childhood and becoming an adult faster than expected.  It’s very tragic to see any child have to grow up and lose their sense of imagination and playfulness in exchange for a life of stress and oppression.