Analogy questions are among the most feared of all standardized test questions, but they do not have to be a big deal. The trick to teaching students to solve such logic questions is to keep your eyes open to analogies in non-verbal material.
Analogies are usually stated in this format: "A is to B and C is to which of the following?" Each of the letters in the formula is replaced by a word.
In order for students to respond appropriately to standardized test analogies questions, they first have to know what the words mean. Then they have to be able to identify a general category to which something belongs.
Analogy questions are based on the relationship between the first two items being identical to the relationship between the second two. If you can figure out the relationship between the first pair of items, you will know the relationship between the second pair of items.
Little kids' picture books often use analogies. For example, the bird is shown in its nest, the bear in its den, the dog in its doghouse, the cow in the barn. The last page is probably going to be the picture of a child in his or her bed because the relationship is between the "animal" and where it sleeps. By analogy, then, bear is to den as child is to bed .
Students who are not good at words might find it easier to think of analogies as two equal fractions, like 3/12 = 1/4. When you ask the question "how is 12 related to 3?" the answer is that "12 is 4 times as much as three." On the other side of the equation, 4 is 4 times as much as 1. A youngster who is better at math than at English, would probably understand that 3 : 12 = numerator : denominator.
You may wonder why anyone other than test makers and children's book authors cares about analogies. The best way I can explain is by using an analogy.
Sticking with animals for the moment, think of all the different qualities, characteristics, or features on which any two animals could be compared. You might come up with qualities such as appearance, habitat, diet, economic value, defense mechanisms, and locomotion. That list of qualities could become a pattern for examining the characteristics of an animal you had never seen before. In fact, helping people examine a new object, process or concept is the major function of an analogy.
By being aware of the opportunities for applying logic and thinking through relationships between concepts, you can take the terror out of analogy questions, even for youngsters who are not highly verbal.
Author Info:
Linda Aragoni is a writer, writing teacher, and editor of You-Can-Teach-Writing.com, the guide to enabling students grades 7-12 to become competent writers. The analogy is just one pattern writers can use for thinking about information. To learn about other patterns frequently used in presenting nonfiction material go to http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/expository-writing.html
Copyright 2008, Linda Gorton Aragoni. You may reprint this article provided the whole text, the author's name, the links, and this copyright notice remain intact.
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