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

boarding school boys

finn arrived yesterday afternoon. black hair but soft brown eyes. the hair gel he uses in his hair makes him look like a manga character. mom says no to say that too his face because it will hurt his feelings. so i don’t. well, not all the time anyways. he spends most of his time in his room. i don’t know what he does, but it occupies most of his time. when he comes dad enforces that i hug him hello and tell him i’ve missed him. it’s not that i don’t miss him. i just don’t want him to have the pleasure of knowing. mainly because i know he won’t say it back, but it doesn’t bother me. it’s better if we just sit and aimlessly ask questions about eachothers lives. 

boarding school boys are different. everything is a countdown to when they go back to school. everything is a competition. who can finish their cereal first? who can type the fastest? who can do this? who can do that? i don’t care if he thinks he can run faster than me.

the turkey will be cooked tomorrow, along with pies and potatoes. in the mean time i listen to finn talk about his school. the pride he has in his school is impressive. it’s no longer ‘i hate school’, but ‘today at school, i learned something’. i’ve learned to appreciate school like he does. i just wonder if the knowledge i possess from my eighth grade history class will ever be useful. right now i don’t need to worry about what will be useful and what won’t be, i just need to nod my head so finn thinks i’m listening.

~ Keeley S.

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:55 PM

    I like how you learned from your brother

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 1:10 PM

    I really like how you describe the different competitions they have.

    ReplyDelete

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