I’m hoping a teacher out there can give me some input about this. I’m wondering what part of the curriculum usually deals with teaching students how to work with analogies.
In my son’s school (gr. 6, middle school) it is covered by the science teacher. He is in the resource class for all other core subjects (English, history and math). These analogy quizzes are a substantial part (20%) of his science grade. He is having a really hard time with them.
Since I believe this is really part of the math, or even the English curriculum, I would like them to work in the resource room with him on these. In fact, I’ve found that this is not mentioned in the state curriculum standards at all in 6th grade.
I guess I have two questions – is this typically covered in science class, and how do I help him with these? He has a very hard time with abstract concepts, and with reading comprehension.
Re: How to help understand analogies
It would also be a COMPLETELY reasonable accommodation to decrease the grade impact of these questions. HOw many are on any given quiz? If he could choose one… or get a simpler one… but he should not be overly penalized in Science for a skill issue that is a function of his learning disability — and that skill issue should be addressed appropriately.
analogies
I do find it odd that a science teacher is doing this, but I would also be grateful to have it taught at all. Most kids see analogies for the first time on a heavily weighted standardized test. Perhaps the science teacher and/or the principal saw a need for this subject to be taught directly, especially since science and math deal with logic, and they are trying hard to meet it.
The sentence method is the best way.
Another example: Dog is to fur as bird is to ____
You say, well, a dog is covered by its fur; what is a bird covered by? Hopefully, the answer “feathers” will come up.
Note that *order* is very important in these things.
I think the idea of getting a workbook full of these and teaching them directly is a good idea. A good educational publisher should have something.
Too often analogies just aren’t taught, period. So — Science class is better than nothing. It’s a subject where they are *extremely* useful, too — the scientists call ‘em “models” and do PhD’s based on them.
In general, teaching an abstract concept is best done starting visual and concrete. What I woudl do is find examples of analogies (in comprehension books, whatever) and look for ones that were the most concrete. Then I’d make a visual version of it. (I suppose you *could* teach the real concept of analogous thinking — but it’s hardly practical.)
THen I’d try the “make a sentence” way of figuring them out. So if the analogy were “wheel: car _____ : horse” (and I just made that up so it probably isn’t very good) I’d make a sentence that explained what a wheel has to do with a car: “THere are four wheels on a car.” Then I”d plug in “horse” in the second sentence and fill in the blank: There are four ____ on a horse. Obviously a visual could help… you could add that it’s stronger because it’s wheels and legs that both help the horse and car move, respecgtively.
It’s *not* quickly learned, PERIOD. WHat is acutely obvious to verbal thinkers is muddy fog to concrete ones. HOWEVER if you break it into simple steps that they can do, and provide *lots* of practice at that level, real progress can happen.
Of course, most teachers are in a hurry to get that kiddo up to the 50th percentile so they’ll teach the whole shooting match, and when that doesn’t work, repeat it all again, and again - as if I were to try to become a weightlifter by trying to budge a 400 pound weight, “until I could do it.” Duh.