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

The F-5

Sirens ringing, seagulls screaming as darkness closes in on the little light that is left of the sun. The intense storm assaults the seaside city with hail and heavy rain as the screams of innocent civilians pierce through the once peaceful sound of a scanty beach town.

While the harsh winds speed up, all of time seems to slow down. The dark green and black clouds start to spin while the city starts to realize what exactly is coming. As the clouds spin faster and faster the screaming only gets louder and louder. Radio broadcasts start to come, all bringing emergency warnings, telling people to get out of the streets. While everyone is still trying to find cover, they all know that it’s too late. The spiraling winds touch down on the Earth and immediately starts to rip and tear everything in its path; buildings torn out of the ground and houses flung out in the air.

It’s over. What felt like ten, hours only ten minutes. The carnage of the furious winds is all that is left. Cars flipped, the rubble of defenseless building, and the sobs of the mourning civilians as they realize that all that they ever had is gone. The grey leaves the sky and finally allows the sun to shine again. Seagulls calm and quiet as rescue boats patrol the streets with seamlessly endless stretchers traveling to the calls of help.

Days became shorter. People left faster and faster. The famous F5. The one that took away homes. 10 minutes and hundreds dead. And it’s gone. Most of the people gone. Nothing left.

~ Martin T.

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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2016 at 10:25 AM

    I really like this dramatic story about the effect of the F5. Have you experienced one before or what inspired you to write about it?

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:28 PM

    I really like how much detail you used to describe the storm and the damage it did.

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:29 PM

    I like how you used the perspective of someone that was in the tornado. - Jack Sterling

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:35 PM

    This is so good! I like how the ending has a little mystery.

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  5. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:40 PM

    Good job, makes you feel for what happens when F5s hit.
    -Malachy

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2016 at 1:43 PM

    I like how your description makes the story very intense and dramatic by saying, "what felt like ten, hours only ten minutes.

    ReplyDelete

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