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.
A Fierce Dragon
My dog, a yellow labrador retriever, is my favorite animal in the world. Every day she greets me with a big smile, her toy dragon, and her tail wagging. She has the happiest, cutest, most affectionate personality. Sometimes I will walk downstairs and there she will be, rolling around the carpet or just running around with her dragon. I think that Lily is the most important member of the family. She always makes my family laugh, makes us walk her as a family (which brings the family together), and her whiny face is too cute to resist playing with her. When I go to camp for a month during the summer, I always miss her smile and her playfulness the most. When I get home from school, I look forward to see her leaping out of the house to greet me. I play tug-a-war with her and her dragon, which she loves. I will sometimes just be chasing her around a room for five minutes. Lily’s dragon is literally a part of her, they are inseparable. When we go to Maine for a month during the summer, dragon comes with us. When people come to the door, she always has to bring dragon to them. If you take her dragon away and put it on top of the counter, she gets upset and whines. While her dragon looks very fierce and scary, Lily is the most harmless dog you’ll ever meet. The dragon is like a shark being carried around by a guppy.`
~ Sonia G.
This is so cute! I especially like the last sentence ;)
ReplyDeleteYour story is so cute, and your dog sounds really nice. I love the metaphors you used to describe her.
ReplyDeleteThis story is about the cutest I've read! The way you describe Lily and her Dragon paints a picture in my mind that is super sweet. She seems like a really kind and loving dog. I also love the simile at the end about the Shark being carried by a guppy.
ReplyDeleteOh. My. Gosh. THAT WAS SO ADORABLE I CANNOT EVEN HANDLE IT!!!!!!!!!! That is literally the best description of Lily I have ever heard. When I read the title I thought to myself, "OMG YES I WANT TO READ THIS SO BADLY!!!!"
ReplyDeleteSorry if that was weird... :)
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