Wong 1

Jennifer Wong
College 1
Professor Kollross
December 12, 2015
College Reading Reflection
During this semester in my College 1 class, we read the novel, Spare Parts, by Joshua
Davis. This novel is based on a true story about four undocumented boys from Phoenix, Arizona
who compete in a robotics competition. The boys are Oscar Vasquez, Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo
Santillan, and Luis Aranda. Reading this novel throughout the semester definitely changed my
perspective on certain values and improved my reading habits, because throughout the novel, I
reflected on the issues that the boys face and my understanding of it through the reading
reflection journals, literature circle discussions, free writes, and Spare Parts speaker events that I
completed and went through.
The reading reflection journals were without a doubt the most helpful tool of the semester
that was useful in managing my reading differently. This assignment was consecutive and
demanded many things: a detailed, yet concise summary of the section, a response or connection
to the novel, two high level thinking questions about the novel, a description of reading strategies
and a thought process used, and an explanation of three or more significant vocabulary terms.
Because it demanded a lot of things, I personally think it was vigorous and challenged myself to
think more deeply about my reading strategies and my understanding. Doing the reading journal
reflections influenced me to actually note my reading habits and evaluate how effectively I was
reading. In addition, the reading reflection journals influenced how I read the book, because
having to write out multiple, constant responses forced me to reflect on the book and understand

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it. Besides having to reflect on the novel, it actually was helpful, because it allowed me to
analyze the characters better and see how they grew along the book. Some characters that made
me think about my own story were Lorenzo and Luis. In my reading reflection journals, I
mentioned Lorenzo a lot, since I related to him the most. One of my reading strategies was to
relate my own personal experiences with the boys, especially Lorenzo. I related to him the most,
since he was the outcast, was bullied often, and felt troubled at home. Sometimes growing up, I
felt as he did. Another reading strategy was to take notes and summarize the section of the novel.
Often, I shared my notes with my literature circle and we discussed the events happening in the
novel. Furthermore, Luis was also a significant character to me, because of how he had to work
to support his familys financial situation, which I related to. Often like Luis, I fall asleep in
school because of working the night before.
The literature circle discussions and free writes were additional help in understanding the
novel better and improving my reading strategies. I often learned new perspectives about the
novel from my peers and different ways to improve my reading strategy. For example, once a
member from my literature group told me that he splits the section assigned to read into seven or
eight parts and summarizes those parts, so that his summary is neither too long nor short, yet still
detailed. I thought this was a genius way to approach doing the reading reflection journal and
began doing that also. The Spare Parts speaker events changed my perspective on certain values,
such as my view on undocumented immigrants and stereotypes about Hispanics and immigrants.
I attended the screening of the film, Undocumented, and the Joshua Davis speaker event, both of
which I was moved by. At the screening of the film, there were speakers who were actually
undocumented immigrants, and they spoke about their struggles of being in America and trying
to achieve their American Dream. Also, at the Joshua Davis speaker event, the author himself

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was there and answering questions about the novel. After the events, I realized that there are
many more undocumented immigrants than I thought there was, but they were from all over the
world and that they struggled through many things. I also realized by reading the novel and
doing the poster project, stereotypes are not always true and no one should judge a person by
their skin color.
Furthermore, I did additional reading in my English 1A class. In that class, I read works
from Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Germaine Greer, Judith Butler, Karl Marx, Andrew Carnegie, and
Yukio Mishima. Since entering college, my reading had changed, because from college one, I
learned new reading strategies that I applied to my other class. One new strategy that I have
developed is finding a way to relate my own experiences to the material I am reading. I think of
either how this materials information affects me or how it is similar to me in a way. Another
strategy is taking better notes and summarizing the material to understand it better. Something
that I read that was difficult for me was the novel, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea,
by Yukio Mishima, because this novel was about depressing views of life, such as nihilism and
the disappointment of reality. I found it depressing to read and it left me with many questions.
Some resources I used to help me understand the novel was participating in class with
discussions and asking my professor and peers my questions. I feel like an insider in reading for
college, because I not only connected with the materials I read, I was able to connect with my
peers over the reading. However, I feel like an outsider sometimes, because I do not understand
the material at times or do not agree with the views the material is trying to argue. I think to
change this I can try to view things in a more unbiased way and perhaps talk about the material
more with peers to gain perspective.