Part I: Essential Questions:

• Which stories are worth reading?

I think it depends on each person, because we find stories worth reading when we like them; when we like the setting, the plot, the way the author writes, the characters, and other things. Some people might say that adventurous stories are worth reading, while other person could disagree and say that romantic stories are worth reading. I personally believe that stories that teach you something are the onew who are worth reading. The ones that keep you interested through every single page, the ones that make you want to know what is going to happen next all the time. In the end, the stories that you would personally enjoy are the ones that are worth reading.​​

• What if everyone were the same?

First of all, it is impossible to make all humans exactly the same because then there would be no difference between males and females, so humans would not be able to reproduce and they would become extinct after some time. But in the case it was possible and everyone were the same, it would be a cold, boring world. It would be hard to get jobs, since no one is smarter than anyone else; Music would not be good, since no one is more talented than anyone else; There would not be any supermodels, because no one is prettier or better-looking than anyone else. So, basically, being different to everyone else, like we are now, is what makes it fun because by being different you have different abilities, level of intelligence, personality, etc… And those things are what make everyone special and unique.

• What makes something valuable?

Once again, I would say it depends. It depends on what the thing is, and what it means to people. Some things can be valuable because they are expensive, like gold, for example. Those type of things are, or should be, valuable to everyone, because everyone knows they're expensive. But some other things are valuable in a different way: an emotional way. By this, I mean that some people have objects that have am emotional importance to them, making them valuable. They might not be expensive, but they will be valuable for them anyway. I would say a very common example of this is when things are passed from generation to generation in families.  

• Should you trust your instincts?

In my opinion, it depends on the situation that you are going through. In general situations that show up to us everyday: yes. If you have absolutely no experience on what you are doing or about to do: no, unless you don’t have another choice. If the consequences of making a wrong decision are not that bad: yes. If the consequences are really bad: no, unless you don’t have another choice. So, basically, I think it’s good to trust your instincts, but in extreme situations where you are not sure of what you are doing or you are not sure of what is going to happen, I’d rather ask someone who is more experienced than me to give me advice. In case there isn’t anyone who you can ask for help, then you don’t really have any other choice apart from trusting your instincts. So I think it mainly depends on the situation.

 

• How can we achieve the impossible?

We can achieve the impossible by starting with a proper mindset, I mean , being open-minded because most people think that everything is impossible at first, but then after a while, they realize that they can do it. What we could do next is build some perseverance, and use more of your creativity. 

• What keeps you on the edge of your seat?

• I think what keeps me on my seat is suspense. This is important because it keeps me excited because it makes me wonder what might happen in the future to the characters

• Part II:

• How does what you learned connect to the real world?

Throughout this unit we learned about many things, but I will use "trusting our instincts" as an example. We read a short story about trusting our instincts, and analyzed it a bit, and I realized that we use our instincts quite often and it can be very useful to do so. Maybe we don't do this in our everyday life, but we sure do it several times a month, maybe even week. Studying about this made me ask myself, should we actually trust our instincts? And after this unit, I would say: It depends. It depends on how severe the situation is, it depends on how much previous expperience you have on what you are leading with, and it can depend on many other specific things. Although, this might be a little bit contradictory, but I always trust my instincts. Always.

• As you look at the work that you have completed throughout this unit, what are your strengths?

Throughout this unit I think I was not very good at citing evidence from texts to support my answers. I think citing evidence wasn’t that easy for me because in the stories we read now, most of our thoughts (at least in my case) are inferences that we make as we read, and when you have to cite evidence for thoughts that you inferred, and that were not literally in the text, you have to quote things and explain them to much, because if you just put the quote, then the person who reads it is not going to understand what it has to do with your thoughts. To improve I could just write down literal thoughts instead of inferential ones so that when I cite the evidence it’s not hard to explain what it has to do with the thought.