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

Love

While my family and I were in Las Vegas last year for Christmas, we saw Cirque du Soleil’s Love, which was, or rather is dancers and performers from Cirque du Soleil dance and perform while a remixed version of some of The Beatles’ hit songs. While that may sound mundane, it was something that was truly magical, almost extraterrestrial, to watch.

Their first performance was to the song “Because,” and it started out slowly, but then built up faster, and faster, and faster, when the music suddenly stopped… and the lights faded… and the stage setup was swapped out for the subsequent song. As the show went on, the performers performed.

Another very memorable performance was to “Octopus’s Garden.” Cue the music. Turn on the lights. Let the performers perform. Let them do what they do best. They gave us a spectacle of fish and other sea creature of ribbon. With Ringo Starr’s voice coming down from on high. And at the center of it all, an Octopus looking down on its aforementioned “garden” of sea life.

The performers of Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” were truly professionals, performers of art if you will, and they have left a lasting memory of a fun time with my family. It was an amazing spectacle, and only a absolute fool would have called it mediocre.

~ Liam O.

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7 comments:

  1. NicholasJanuary 5, 2016 at 9:17 AM

    I like how you are able to take something that so dull like a dancing performance to songs by The Beatles, and turn it into something that sounds like it would be the best thing to see in life, just by using your words.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:13 AM

    I like how you were able to convey an image/message, without going into extreme detail, such as how the performers were dressed and what dances they were doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:52 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:53 AM

      Thanks for the feedback

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:50 AM

    I think that your description of the performance was very good without going into excruciating detail.

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