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 Cabin in Colorado

Every year my family takes a trip to one of my favorite places in the world, our cabin in Colorado. My dad, brother, stepmom, and I visit my family’s cabin; the trip usually hosted by my grandmom and granddad, on my dad’s side my cousin Ellery, and her parents usually join us.

At our cabin, my brother, cousin, and I usually run around in the woods with weapons playing war games. I really enjoy playing these games because I get to spend time with my cousin and do things I like in big open spaces. My dad usually spends most of the trip making improvements on the cabin with my uncle.

We have a log cabin surrounded by woods slightly up a mountain from the town Silvercliff. I love Silvercliff because it is very quiet and calm. Silvercliff is so quiet that it gives the impression of a ghost town. Silvercliff used to be a mining town for silver, but was mostly abandoned when they ran out of silver. Our property is four acres in total surrounded by a lush forest, a small plains with a fire pit, and a wood pile. My family travels to our cabin in July when it’s not too hot or too chilly and we can really enjoy the weather. We go to Colorado to see our dads’ parents and step parents and to experience the peace and serenity of the area.

~ Jack Sto.

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6 comments:

  1. NicholasJanuary 5, 2016 at 9:21 AM

    I like how you not only explain what the cabin is like, but you also explain what the town is like. It gives you a very nice and detailed setting to visualize as you read this

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:56 AM

    Cabin in the woods - DB

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  3. DevenJanuary 7, 2016 at 10:48 AM

    I like how you put the reader in your shoes with detail and description.

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 10:52 AM

    I like the description, you can imagine the place well.-Rafael

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 10:54 AM

    I like how the words are very descriptive I can imagine it.

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 10:59 AM

    You are very descriptive when describing the area which makes the cabin seem like a real place that I can fully imagine.

    ReplyDelete

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