Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E   2.7.

Teaching features distinguishing strong and weak student exemplars

In this example, a teacher provides students with the first paragraph of a strong exemplar text  

and a weak one, both for an interpretive essay in response to the same prompt.

Write an interpretive essay about “The Horned Toad” by Gerald Haslam.

Student exemplar 1 (strong)

There are people in life that may make us irritated, upset, or sad, yet we can learn to love them. 

“The Horned Toad,” by Gerald Haslam, is an autobiographical narrative that reflects Haslam’s 

experience as a child when his grandmother came to visit his family. Through his changing rela-

tionship with his grandmother, Haslam illustrates how people can learn to love and accept some-

thing or someone that appears unpleasant at first. He teaches us not to trust our first impression 

of other people and to look deeper to discover what we have in common with them.