Personal Narrative Essay: Student Model

Transcription

1 Personal Narrative Essay: Student Model Writing Prompt: Think about a time when someone did something to help others. This person could be someone you know or a character you have read about. Think about what this person did to help others. Consider what happened before, while, and after this person helped others. Write a story for your teacher about someone helping others. Consider story elements (for example, character, setting, and plot) as you develop your narrative

2 STUDENT MODEL: I will never forget that day when my dad helped someone along the roadside. We were really super excited to go on vacation to picturesque Naples, Florida. We all got in the family van, but we knew this road trip would take forever. Family vans are not Ferrari s. We eagerly anticipated a glorious seaside vacation, and my brothers and I are to this day not the most patient people in the world. On the other hand, my dad is such a patient, humble Samaritan. So, you can guess what happened! Somewhere on I-75 between nowhere and somewhere, it happened! We passed a stranded car. My dad pulled over and immediately my older brother yelled: Dad, are you insane? This is going to take like forever, why don t they just call AAA. My dad s answer was: Son, it s important to help others when you re in a position to help, and in any case Naples will still be there tomorrow. So, there we were, in the middle of nowhere, waiting for my dad to help these poor, unfortunate souls. It was steaming hot in that old family van, but who were we to complain if this was about doing the right thing? My dad walked over to the elderly couple, and I must admit they were sweet, and ever so grateful that my dad stopped to help. Mom, the Julia Childs of the family, immediately brought her picnic basket out, and while dad was fixing their car we shared our mouthwatering, delectable food with these strangers. This was just another reason to have my siblings frowning. Finally Dad was done with fixing their car and we were ready to hit the road again. Not so fast, the old gentleman reacted. He opened his wallet and handed Dad his business card. Turns out he was the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and as a gesture of a grateful heart he invited us to a day at the stadium as his VIP guests. In the end we were all happy: Dad s example paid off. We would eventually go on to follow his example many times.. Maybe with less pure intentions than my dad s.

3 Personal Narrative Essay: Student Model # Writing Prompt: Think about what it would be like if you or a character from a book discovered a new place. This place could be somewhere in your community, the world, or even space. Think about what might happen before, while, and after discovering this new place. Write a story for your teacher about you or a character from a book discovering a new place. Consider story elements (for example, character, setting, and plot) as you develop your narrative

4 My mom loves gardening. She says that digging in the dirt feeds her soul. Her flower beds are filled with daisies, dahlias, and waves of petunias. I have always avoided it as much as possible. Dirt is not an attractive nail color. One of my favorite activities is playing games on my ipad, which irritates my mother a lot. During one particularly hot summer week of indoor inactivity, my mother strongly suggested that I get some fresh air by weeding her garden. Is she serious? Discovering that she was indeed serious, threatening to lock away my ipad if I did not comply, I knew I was in for some hard labor. I fortified my nails with heavy garden gloves, grabbed some digging tools, and headed for the garden. It was one of those August days, not a breeze in the air. After a few minutes on the ground, the sweat began rolling into my eyes and down my neck. I was miserable. I lifted up one particularly broad leaf to reach the underlying weeds, when something suddenly darted away. What was that? I wondered. It was too big to be a bug. I carefully peered under other leaves, hoping to get another glimpse of the intruder. I could hardly believe what I observed, hiding behind a dark green plant. It was a tiny person! I was immediately transported back to my 5-year old self who believed in elves and fairies, a belief that I gave up years ago. I blinked and when I looked again, there was nothing there but a few ants crawling around. I had to do one more search around the garden bed for that little person, even though logic told me I was silly. Just before I was about to give up, I noticed the figure waving to me at the edge of the garden! I decided not to share the incident with my mother. There s no need to make her doubt her daughter s sanity. Won t my mom be surprised when I volunteer to weed in order to come back and explore this place I have newly discovered?

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