My students didn’t understand word analogies until I did this. I started teaching the relationship between word pairs and watched their skills grow.
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Teaching word analogies can be fun if you know how to do it. It’s all about finding and developing the relationship between word pairs. An analogy solver can be helpful.
In my experience, I found the traditional way of teaching word analogies wasn’t robust enough for my students to truly understand them. It went something like this:
- Find examples and lists of common word analogies
- Show a few examples and be satisfied when one or two students say, “Oh, I get it!”
- Hand the students a worksheet and let them swim or sink.
This strategy is especially difficult for students who are English learners and who may not yet have a depth of vocabulary. But what can we do that’s better?
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My Students Didn’t Understand Word Analogies Until I Did This
As a new teacher, I used to teach analogies the same way. After giving the students several examples I expected they would understand how analogies worked and be able to solve them on their own. Perhaps it was because analogies were fun for me. I like puzzles, and that is how I thought of analogies; a puzzle to solve.
But no dice.
My teaching was lacking.
One evening, I was at a workshop for teaching language arts, and the presenter mentioned the strategy I’m about to share with you. It changed the way I teach word analogies, and it changed the skill my students were able to develop. Once they mastered this process, solving word analogies helped increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Defining Types of Word Analogies
In reality, an analogy is a relationship between two things. Using critical thinking skills, students discover the relationships between two words, and use that knowledge to solve the next part of the analogy.
There are many types of analogies, depending on the relationship. I won’t try to make an exhaustive list here, because you can find plenty fo lists online by searching the phrase “types of analogies.” Also, since I specialize in elementary grades, my analogies and examples are simple. Here are a few types of analogies with examples:
- Cause and effect (lightning:thunder)
- Sequential order (yesterday:before)
- Antonyms or Synonyms (hot:cold)
- Growth or decline (kitten:cat)
- Object and related object (lamp:light bulb)
- Parts of speech, i.e., noun/adjective, or verb/adverb (pillow:soft)
The Key to Teaching Analogies
The key to teaching analogies really lies in helping students learn how to look for and find the relationship between the first two words.
Once students understand that they’re not just trying to find a random word to fill in a blank but rather they’re trying to find a relationship between two words and then to create a similar relationship between two more words word analogies become fun. It becomes more of a game.
Important note:
Don’t forget to teach the students that the order of the word pair in an analogy is important. For example, if you have a noun : adjective relationship in an analogy, the second comparison needs to be in that order. That is to say, a solution that had adjective : noun would be incorrect.
- Correct: Pillow is to soft as rock is to hard.
- Incorrect: Pillow is to soft as hard is to rock.
However, be warned! Sometimes students will find an unexpected relationship. Their answers might not be the one you expected.
As absurd as an analogy may appear on the surface, I say if they can define and defend the relationship, the analogy’s valid.
Analogies Worksheets and Slides
I created a helpful graphic organizer to help with teaching word analogy relationships to my elementary students in third, fourth, and fifth grade.
- First, the students see an analogy. Underneath that is a box for the students to write down the relationship.
- After they find the first relationship, they use the same relationship to find the second half of the word analogy.
This is the one thing I did that totally changed how well my students could understand, define, and create word analogies. It’s so simple, but it was a huge revelation to me when I started using the graphic organizer in the image above.
I made two teaching resources with definition and examples for you to use in teaching. It has 52 word analogies for students to solve. It has an answer key for you. It also has a blank analogy worksheet that you can use to create your own analogy worksheets for any type of analogy you want.
This word analogy product is available as a digital slide deck in Google Slides (TM) or as a printable PDF. You could print them in landscape format. Another idea is to print them four to a page for task cards. Laminate the task cards and use them to create a game for literacy centers.
Interactive Analogy Boom(TM) Cards
Below this you’ll see same product, but made into a deck of Boom (TM) Cards.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Boom (TM) cards, they’re digital decks that students absolutely love. They’re engaging and self checking. Students can use them on Androids, iPads, iPhones, Kindle Fire, as well as computers, tablets, and Chromebooks. You don’t need to have an account with Boom (TM) Learning to use them in your classroom.
If you click the image below, you can see a preview of this word analogies Boom deck and review the first few cards.
Once you use this technique to teach word analogies, your students will discover how much fun they can be. They may even surprise you with some clever ones of their own for you to solve!
Another Word Analogy Post:
The Simple Trick to Solving Word Analogies
