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

One Big Happy Family

My family is known for its quantity, seven. I have three older siblings, who have been my best friends and role models my entire life. They coached me in basketball and baseball when I was young. I don’t remember a moment in my life when I wasn’t with them. After 1st grade, I hadn’t rode a bus to school for five years. This was because they drove me to school, even though they weren’t always allowed to. Eventually, they graduated, one at a time. Saying goodbye to them for the first time was a hard thing for me to do. They are all in college now, becoming adults getting jobs and phasing out of the past. I only see them for a little while every year. This year, my family hadn’t all been together since Christmas, until Thanksgiving came around. Even though it was great to have everybody together all the time, it isn’t so bad now because it is a special thing when we are all together. It’s almost like I would rather wait for great times than have instant good times. I’ve made so many memories with my family over the course of my life and I couldn’t describe how great they are to anybody.

~ Will O.

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 11:01 AM

    Very touching and emotional story. Great work

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:40 PM

    what a wonderful family!!!!

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:41 PM

    A wonderful and relatable piece of art.

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:53 PM

    Nice

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2015 at 12:54 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2015 at 2:08 PM

    Another intricate piece of art from the Oshea. What an author.

    ReplyDelete

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