How to Teach Analogies to Fifth Grade
- 1). Show your students a picture of a dog. Place it at the front of the classroom where they can all easily see it. Display a picture of a doghouse next to the dog photo.
- 2). Elicit from your students all the possible absolute relationships to this doghouse. For example, answers like "the dog sleeps in the doghouse" or "the dog lives in the doghouse" are valid and absolute, but "the dog hates his doghouse" is not.
- 3). Show students a picture of a horse, and place it at the front of the room. Then show them several different pictures: a beach house, a tree house, a bale of hay and a stable. Ask the students which picture best completes the analogy with the horse, based on the dog analogy you provided. Students should correctly select the stable, as the stable, like the doghouse, is a place where the animal sleeps or lives.
- 4). Using fifth grade vocabulary words, introduce a purely written analogy on the blackboard or dry erase board. For example, write "fade : brighten" and ask students to identify the relationship between these two words. Students should pinpoint that the two words are opposites.
- 5). Write the word "soiled" on the board and ask for possible words that could complete the analogy based on the opposites relationship established in step 4. For example, students should offer words like "clean," "washed" or comparable words that mean the opposite of "soiled."
- 6). Give students worksheets that test this concept of analogies at a fifth grade level. Have them work independently and then check answers as a class.
- 7). Put students into pairs and have them make analogies to test each other. Walk around the room providing help and giving correction as necessary.
