8th Grade Analogies – Cairns #76

Years ago I read an article stating that all the pre-college tests like the SAT were not correlated with achievement in college and beyond. Only one test did predict it and that was the Miller Analogy test. Perhaps analogical thinking is important in some fundamental way so I started giving my eighth grade students analogies to complete on their Weekly Pages. This quickly gave way to having kids create their own analogies. A few years ago, I started sharing the better ones in Chrysalis’s weekly newsletter. Below are a selection of analogies I’ve recorded from the last two and a half years. I share them for three reasons. One is in hope you find them as delightful as I do. Second is because they serve as windows into the eighth grade mind. There is a lot going on in there; that’s why I love teaching eighth grade. (There’s a common image that junior high kids are unpleasant. That’s not my experience. I think that what people find unpleasant is seeing the unpleasant things within our culture beginning to be practiced by adolescents. They mirror their environment. In a caring environment like Chrysalis, they are very, very wonderful.) The third reason is to contemplate why an analogy test would be correlated with achievement better than other standardized tests. What was going on within the students as they created these? (If you don’t get one of them, think about it for a while.)

Minion is to villain as partner is to hero.  Josiah

Amelia Earhart is to planes as Michalengelo is to paintbrush.   Sean

Orca is to wild as goldfish is to domestic.    Jake

iPhone is to iPhone case as acorn is to shell as organs are to body.   Hannah

Flag is to country as mascot is to school.   Caitlin

Rock is to paper as scissors are to rock.      Josiah

Cast is to broken arm as ice cream is to broken heart.  Sean

Pandora’s box is to mystery for Pandora as Odysseus’s  bag is to mystery to his crew.  Will S.

Stain is to clothes as crack is to windshield. – William S.

Sword is to close range as crossbow is to long range. – Lukas

Pop is to quiz as unprovoked is to attack.   Cameron

Door is to out as ladder is to up.   Damian

Black hole is to matter as censorship is to free speech.   Will H.

Elevator is to stairs as first class is to coach.   Josiah

Kermit the Frog is to Miss Piggy as Ken is to Barbie.   Mackenzie

The Constitution is to “Whatever the King says” as democracy is to monarchy.       Caleb

Toothbrush is to teeth as Q-tips are to ears.    Austin

Black Death is to fleas as West Nile is to mosquitoes.      Sierra C.

Tired is to sleep as flat tire is to air.       Ellie

Hunch is to investigation as spark is to fire.   Andrew

Soy sauce is to Chinese food as ketchup is to American food.    Kaela B.

Hatred is to heart as gallons of oil are to the ocean.         Kendra

Tears are to the soul as a broken dam is to a river. Kendra

Beauty is to art as butterfly is to butterfly net.   Brianna-

“You can do it” is to encouragement as “Santa Claus doesn’t exist” is to disappointment

Gladius (a Roman sword) is to cavalry saber as stab is to slash.         Marshall

Ticket is to concert as passport is to country.                Ellie

Bad sound effects are to sci fi as sparkles are to fantasy.    Marshall

A rumor is to young friends as a crashing wave is to a beach.    Violette

ab is to ba as 6+4 is to 4+6.      Bella

Words are to language as snow is to silence.    Isabella

Shark is to deep waters as tiger is to tall grass.   Violette

The Magna Carta is to England as the Constitution is to America.   Jack

Hammer is to build as sledgehammer is to break.   Ian

U.S. is to U.S.S. as U.K. is to H.M.S.    Jack

Rain is to clouds as leaves are to trees.   Violette