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

Birds

It was a breezy spring day after school last year. I was with five friends, and we had some time to kill before the spring concert. We decided to ride around my neighborhood for a little bit on scooters, skateboards, and bikes.

After a while in my neighborhood, we got bored and decided to go to another neighborhood next door called Aldebaran. The only bad thing about Aldebaran was all the birds. When we arrived to Aldebaran, we went down a large hill a couple of times. This hill ended with a grassy slope and a green murky lagoon that was kind of in the forest. With lots of birds.

After some exploring and the inhaling of disgusting smells, we all came to a conclusion that this lagoon is probably the sketchiest place in McLean and it was a bad place to be. We `walked up the grassy hill and as we reached the top to our bikes, skateboards, and scooters, I noticed a shadow.

A large shadow of something in the air, something with wings; A BIRD!

Then I heard two loud screams; I turned back and saw Nick and Justin squirming. They were trying to wipe something white of their hair and body. It was bird poop.

~ Enrico C.

Labels:

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 8:29 AM

    I enjoyed your setting description it created a great image in my mind of where the story was taking place.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 8:35 AM

    I like the suspense you put in before the climax

    -DW

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 8:43 AM

    I liked the description you put in about the setting and I also liked the suspense. SS

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 8:48 AM

    I liked your description of when the bird pooped on Nick and Justin. It create an image in my head.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 9:05 AM

    I like your descriptive story! CR

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:37 PM

    This was a fun piece to read.I enjoyed how detailed the setting was.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)