Compare exclusive OR gates to a light controlled by switches at the bottom and top of a staircase to explain how XOR logic works in a familiar situation.

For the light in the staircase to be turned on, the switches have to be in opposite directions.
This is similar to how exclusive OR gates are true if one, and only one, of their inputs is true.
The example provides an intuitive reason for the output of an XOR gate, as opposed to making students refer to a truth table to find the output.