How to Teach Analogies

Analogies are an important part of teaching vocabulary. So many standardized tests, including SAT, ACT, GRE, TAKS, and more, are saturated with vocabulary. Unfortunately, with all the standards the states are putting on the teachers, vocabulary gets overlooked quite often. Nevertheless, vocabulary needs to find its way into the classroom, and analogies are a great way to do that.

Things You'll Need

• vocabulary words
• a knowledge of word relationships
• a knowledge of the parts of speech

Instructions

1. The first thing you need to do when teaching analogies is to stress the importance of relationships. For example, if you have the analogy bow:arrow::bat:_______, you need to discuss what the relationship between the bow and the arrow is. This needs to be done before you even look at the second set of words. So, the relationship is that a bow goes with an arrow and makes it travel.

2. Now that you have the relationship between the first two, you need to look at the first word of the second set. Then find a word that will complete the set to mirror the first set's relationship. Since the first word of the second set is bat, what would go with a bat and travel because of the bat? The answer is ball.

3. You have to be sure to tell the student to look at all parts of the relationship because a glove goes with a bat, but the bat does not make a glove travel. Pointing out that example to the students may help them see that they always need to analyze all parts.

4. Once you think you have the right answer to the analogy, you need to emphasize that the parts of speech need to match also. The first word of each set needs to be the same part of speech, and the second word of each set needs to be the same part of speech, also. For example, for the analogy CD:listen::newspaper:_________, the word that goes in the blank needs to be the same part of speech as the word listen...which is a verb. Note that CD and newspaper are both nouns. This is a good way to reinforce parts of speech, which students seem to always "forget" each year.

5. By concentrating on relationships and parts of speech, students should be able to learn how to analyze and complete analogies in no time.

Tips & Warnings

• Start with very easy, basic analogies, always emphasizing relationships and parts of speech.

• Also, you may want to offer multiple choices at first, analyzing why the answer is a perfect match and the other choices are not.