Paired Passages Response Guide
Grade 7 ELA • Prompt Deconstruction Guide
Name: Date:
Step-by-Step Prompt Analysis
Breaking Down the Writing Prompt
Before writing, answer these five key questions to understand exactly what the prompt asks you to do.
1
Action Words
Identify, Explain, Use
What they tell you to do: You must identify (name) the shared central idea, explain how each author builds it differently, and use specific details from both articles to prove your point.
2
Topic: What are you writing about?
Finding valuable natural treasures. You are writing about how both authors show ordinary people discovering rare, high-value items created by nature, and the different ways each author presents this topic.
3
What passages?
Passage 1: Digging for Dollars (about diamond hunting in Arkansas)
Passage 2: Floating Gold, Dragon Spittle, Whale's Pearls (about ambergris from whales)
4
Are you informing, arguing, or writing a story?
You are Informing (informative/explanatory writing). You are explaining facts and textual evidence from the articles without taking a side or writing fiction.
5
Rewrite prompt as a simple question:
"What big idea about nature's treasures do both articles share, and how does each text explain it in a different way?"
Grade 7 Paired Text Strategy • Page 1 of 2 Turn to page 2 for core answers and model essay
Grade 7 ELA • Exemplar Response Page 2 of 2
Classroom Model
Core Answers & Student Response
Simple 7th-grade response written without dashes or quotation marks.
Shared Central Idea
Nature can produce surprising and valuable treasures that make ordinary people wealthy. Both articles show that rare natural materials have huge financial value.
Shared theme: Unexpected wealth from nature
How Developed Differently
Digging for Dollars develops the idea through planned land mining in volcanic dirt with shovels and screens. Floating Gold develops it through accidental ocean beach discoveries of rare whale ambergris.
Contrast: Active digging vs. lucky shore finding
7th Grade Written Response
Short & Simple
A central idea shared by both articles is that nature produces surprising treasures that can make ordinary people wealthy.
Each author develops this central idea in a different way. In Digging for Dollars, the author explains how people search on land at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Visitors pay an entry fee and spend hours digging through volcanic dirt with shovels and sifters to uncover genuine diamonds they get to keep.
In Floating Gold, Dragon Spittle, Whale Pearls, the author develops the idea through ocean discoveries and luck. Ambergris is a waxy substance created inside sperm whale bellies. It floats on seawater for years and washes onto beaches, where beachcombers can stumble upon it and sell it to perfume makers for thousands of dollars.
Both articles prove that nature creates fortunes, but one focuses on hard digging in the dirt while the other focuses on accidental discoveries on the beach.
Student Writing Checklist:
Identified shared central idea
Cited details from Digging for Dollars
Explained difference in development
Cited details from Floating Gold
Grade 7 Reading Informational Text • RI.7.2 No dashes • No complex quotation marks
