Potomac's eighth grade English students read and discuss The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The book is a series of short vignettes that together capture the characters, setting, and stories of a particular neighborhood in Chicago. The vignettes are written from the perspective of a fictional narrator and are based loosely on Cisneros's own experiences as well as those of her students. Some of the vignettes are humorous or action-packed; some are heart-wrenching or shocking. All are deliberate in their use of figurative language, poetic elements, grammar conventions, and pacing.

Each eighth grader composed at least one vignette for inclusion in this digital collection. They wrote in the style of Sandra Cisneros, as they interpreted it based on their notes and our class discussions, yet they set it in a time and place of their own choosing. While some of these vignettes are based on the author's personal experience, many of them are purely fiction, an imagining of characters and circumstances that seemed ripe for this assignment. Students also used this assignment to experiment with new vocabulary words and techniques involving punctuation and sentence structure.

We encourage you to leave comments below vignettes that strike you in some way. Please keep your comments positive and specific; this is not the place for critiques or suggestions. Enjoy the creativity and vibrancy of these students' literary efforts.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

A Day That I Will Never Forget

It was June 19th, 2009. I had received the call at Potomac basketball camp. My mom had told me that she had the baby. And it’s a girl, she added. Her name is Anaya. I didn’t know how to explain my ambiguous feelings, because I was absolutely thrilled to have a new sister, but on the other hand I wasn’t sure what it would be like having another kid in the family, besides just my brother and me. Right after basketball camp ended, I rushed to the hospital. When I got there I darted to Anaya’s room. I greeted my dad, and he explained that I had to be quiet because Anaya was sleeping. I still vividly remember seeing her for the first time, because it is a moment I will never forget. Her small, newborn body swaddled in a snow white blanket, while she curiously looked around trying to find out where she was and who she was with. My mom tried explaining to Anaya those are your two brothers pointing at my brother and me, but Anaya had no understanding of what that meant. After a while I asked if I could pick Anaya up and my mom said I could, as long as I put Purell on, so I hurriedly rubbed the Purell and lifted her featherweight, soft as silk body. I could tell she was about to doze off from this exhausting day. Though she had only been awake for a couple hours, she was unsurprisingly wiped from her first day on the the Earth.  This day seemed like a regular day when I woke up, but it turned out to be life changing day that I will vividly remember forever.

 ~ Akshay G.

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 8:28 AM

    I like your use of the word vividly in this story. Very powerful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 10:42 AM

    I like how you used a very personal moment from your life.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 10:50 AM

    I like how you used very descriptive words to capture each moment

    ReplyDelete

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