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.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

My New Dog

“C’mon mom, drive faster! I want to see the dog!”

“Calm down you’ll see her soon enough.”

My mom is driving me home from tennis practice after she drove down to Delaware to pick up our new puppy this morning; she was born nine weeks ago, and today we finally were able to pick her up. The breeder sent pictures of her before and she looked soooo cute; she was a black miniature poodle.

I’ve always wanted a dog since most of my friends have one, and they are so fun and nice to have; they play, cuddle, listen, and show so much affection towards you. My family had a German Shepard before, but it died when I was about three; I had to beg and convince my parents a lot to get another dog, and finally after one year of it they finally cracked and decided to get a dog. We decided to get a poodle because my parents do not like shedding and we wanted a small dog so we could hold it, it could lay on our lap, and it would be easier to take care off.

We drove into our driveway; I was exhilarated as I jumped out of the car, ran through the front door and into the family room. There she was. A cute tiny black furball. She ran up to me and started jumping and standing on her hind legs, shaking with excitement. I petted her soft curly fur; it was like petting a soft blanket. I could already tell she was going to be an extroverted type of dog rather than a timid introverted dog.

I played with her all day until I had to go to bed. We had a circular gate (with small rectangular holes, that was about 3 feet high) for her to sleep in at night. As I go upstairs and lay in bed I think of how happy I am to finally have my own dog, I let this thought drift me to sleep.

I suddenly woke up to barking and whining. I looked at my clock, it read 4 A.M. I went downstairs to go check on the dog, as I walked into the family room, she climbed up the gate and went over the side.

I stood there in amazement. The first day we got our dog she already managed to escape the gate by putting her paws in the rectangular holes and climbing out. I then moved the gate into the laundry room, put her in it and closed the door so she couldn’t escape.

I went upstairs and chuckled as I thought how crazy and fun this dog is going to be.

~ Colin L.

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8 comments:

  1. Colinj$January 5, 2016 at 9:13 AM

    Skimo is cool. I like how you say chuckled.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 1:33 PM

    I think the story was good. But I just like Skimo. The vignette was really good and descriptive too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:22 PM

    Good job building up the story to the climax.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:31 PM

    Good job! I like the way the tory ends.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:42 PM

    I like how you add at the end what you're thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:46 PM

    I like how you don't get angry that the dog has woken you up at four in the morning.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 8:12 PM

    Starting with dialogue is always a good way to start a story and you did it well.

    ReplyDelete

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