Worksheet on Analogies: Middle school

Have you come across your grammar and language standards and thought…

HOLY COW! I have no idea where to even begin with analogies. There’s no way in the world I could EVER teach analogies. Where do I even begin? Will the kids understand all of those little dots? Isn’t this something for high schoolers?

ME TOO. I vividly remember prepping for my SATs and cramming analogies. I remember learning about them in 8th grade but honestly hadn’t really learned about them since.

Then I became a middle school English teacher and saw the standard: Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each other words.

That is the specific 6th grade common core language standard CCSS L.6.5b. Don’t worry; there is a 5th- 8th grade version too. And it all came flooding back to me. Ahh, analogies, my good old friend. I’ve gotta figure you out, AGAIN.

But here’s the thing. 

• Analogies don’t have to take a ton of time.
• They don’t have to be complicated.
• You don’t need to have a degree in linguistics to do something REALLY stinkin’ cool with your students.

In fact, teaching analogies can be way easier than those lessons you probably remember cramming for before your college entrance exams!

In this blog post, I’m breaking down one of the most fun AND engaging analogies activities to incorporate with your middle schoolers today.

The best part?

-You don’t have to plan a thing!  The lesson is included!

-Your students will be engaged with Doodle Notes.

– A purposeful activity designed specifically for middle schoolers.

Wait, you said no planning the lesson?

Yep, that’s correct. With this lesson, the Powerpoint and Google Slides lesson is included. The Mini-lesson is a quick no fluff slide deck. I heard that’s what all the cool kids are calling PowerPoints now. Please correct me if I didn’t use the term correctly.

The thing about middle schoolers is they have like no attention span. I know that you know that, and honestly, they probably know that. So we don’t have time for fluff. This lesson gets straight to the point before you lose their attention.

Okay, what about the Doodle Notes? That sounds complicated…

I know you might have a very specific way that your students take notes; I know they probably have notebooks with their names on them neatly placed in a bin somewhere safe.

But are they actually engaged during notetaking? Are your students actually remembering what you are teaching? Better yet, are they actually LEARNING from the notes?

There’s something really magical about letting your students use Doodle Notes. Doodle Notes are a unique visual note-taking method with built-in features that increase focus and memory by taking advantage of a collection of brain research, including Dual Coding Theory.

Ok…I’m convinced. Now what about the activity?

The idea is to get your kids involved in actually practicing with the analogies in a hands-on. There are SO many studies that link play to learning. And middle schoolers aren’t exempt from that.

This activity incorporates puzzle pieces that students cut and match up to complete the analogies. It reinforces the idea that analogies are like puzzles. And it allows them to practice completing the analogies without a worksheet!

Grab Your Analogy Resources Here!

• PDF Mini-Lesson 
• Blank Doodle Notes
• Beginner Puzzle Activity
• PowerPoint Mini-Lesson (Members Only)
• Fill-in-the-blank Guided Notes (Members Only)
• Coloring Pages Doodle Notes (Members Only)
• Google Slides Versions (Members Only)
• Teacher Answer Key (Members Only)
• 3 More Advanced Puzzle Activities (Members Only)