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

The Love of My Life

She met him at a bar. The most beautiful thing she had ever seen was at this bar. She saw him for only a moment, but for that moment, she saw who she wanted to spend her life with, she didn’t care that he was short, and had lots of hair. She just knew. 

The day after she was at the bar, she scavenged through the town trying to find him. Searching near and far, low and high, she couldn’t find him. No matter where she looked. His facial features were so distinct that she would be able to spot him from a mile away, with his long golden hair, and big ears. She checked with her best friend to see if she had seen the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. “What do you mean?” she asked with a confused face. As Fiona explained to her friend that he was short, and had golden long hair, and that he had the most beautiful blue eyes that you couldn’t stay mad at., Fiona’s friend interrupted her in the middle of her explanation. I have seen him! Last time I saw him, he was sleeping under a tree. As Fiona’s friend lead her to the love of her life, she heard something. As she looked around to see if he was close, he began sprinting to her like he already knew her. That dog was so special, that she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw him.

~ Diego C.

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2015 at 1:28 PM

    OH we read this in class. Love the reveal at the end!!! Great work.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 10:43 AM

    It's awesome how you keep the part about him being a dog until the end. Nice work!

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 10:48 AM

    I like how you gave little hints throughout the story that it was a dog. Golden retriever?

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:56 PM

    I love every word of this peice

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  5. UnknownFebruary 7, 2015 at 10:09 AM

    You had me wondering until the very end.... Nice job!

    ReplyDelete

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