LESSON: Using Analogies and Comparisons

I teach 5th grade this year and part of the curriculum in Mathematics involves ratios. Ratios, they learned, can be written as a fraction: 2/5, with a colon: 2:5, and in words: 2 to 5. Comparing two sets of ratios might look like: 2:5::4:10. (2 is to 5 as 4 is to 10, etc.) This helped students to see relationships with numbers, and to also understand that before a fraction is reduced, it looks different: 4:10::2:5. (4 is to 10 as 2 is to 5).

As I read in Marzano’s Classroom Instruction that Works, I was intrigued by the information there on analogies and how they help us see how seemingly dissimilar things are similar, thereby increasing our understanding of new information, and understanding how new information relates to “older” information, thus making new connections and deeper understandings and applications.

Well, I reviewed with the students the idea of ratios in numbers, and then went a step further and began to share the idea of analogies, and showed them how analogies are expressed in a similar fashion: hot:cold::night:day, (1:2::5:10). Hot is to cold as night is to day (opposites) and 1 is to 2 as 5 is to 10; a different way of expressing the idea of one-half, etc. I shared many of the good examples in the book, trying to get them to understand and it was interesting to experience with them their discovery of the relationship that exists between ratios and analogies. Comments of “Oh!”, or “I get it!” were very common. Okay, so now things were starting to heat up a bit and accelerate.

Next, I shared some more examples out of the text such as: oxygen:humans::_______:________, (carbon dioxide is to plants). I let them come up with some of their own analogies, many of which I hadn’t thought of myself. Their minds are quick to make connections. Tsunami:wave::__________:__________, (earthquake is to tremor), another example out of the book.

To extend the lesson, now that they were starting to understand, their faces smiling and eyes brightening up, I took a U-turn and returned to some elements of our study of the Civil War. North:South:: ________:_______, (Union, Confederacy; blue, gray; free, slaves, etc.) We played with some of these for a few minutes, and now they were really getting excited. Slaves:plantation owners::_________:________. (One of the young girls in class said: Mr. Nielson: his wife! This threw the class into hysterics and we rolled with that one for a bit. We were out of time, ending on a very good note, setting up the next day’s lesson with a great experience).

Next day, with a quick review of the territory we’d covered the day before with ratios and analogies, etc., I moved forward once again. Which brings me to the second lesson of Compare and Contrast.

I found Mrs. D’s modified version of the compare and contrast chart from page 19, 2.4, in Marzano’s, and asked her to send me a copy, if she would, because I was interested in using it to extend my lesson. She graciously shared, and I copied it for my class to use in culminating our study of the Civil War.

During the study of the Civil War, the students participated in a simulation for about 7 days where they each were either on the Union side or the Confederate side. All through the experience and study, they were continually pitted against each other in very realistic ways. They learned that the North had more men, better food, clothing, guns and other munitions, than the south. The south were better marksmen, and they fought like dragons for their “states’ rights” and to choose how they would live and deal with slavery. There were daily scenarios, (at least 3 per day), of real battle/life situations and depending on how students rolled the dice, it was determined whether they were victorious or not, wounded seriously or not, whether they got infection and died, whether their morale was up or down (there were some defections), their general health, clothing, food, camping situations, etc. They experienced many insights into the war itself, and experienced real thoughts and soldier’s experiences by reading real diary entries. The students had to march everywhere we went. (For the end of the year, this was an excellent experience to keep them focused on school, giving them something different and exciting to do. They also had to make daily journal entries, which were read and graded according to a rubric. Their answers in the journal had to coincide with the daily experience they’d had. If one of their comrades died in battle or they received wounds, they needed to include those things in their journal. What they read and experienced, helped them to feel, empathize, and internalize the experience. So, after utilizing the compare and contrast chart as “platoons”, they had to then “write together”, creating a final writing experience summarizing their experience in the “war” as “real” soldiers, recalling their feelings and thoughts in their responses. Every “soldier” had to write as part of the group, adding to what had been “experienced” by others also. They had to respond as platoons, recalling their experiences, thoughts, feelings, etc. They really got into this and created some writing that sounded not unlike the journal entries they’d read from authentic Civil War era soldiers. It was a very beneficial and exciting experience to see the students grab hold of the experience and learn on a really deep, basic level, which I think has impacted their lives. For me as an educator, it was enlightening and very gratifying to see them learn and grasp the concepts through analogies and comparing and contrasting.

Below is one experience of a “female” soldier. (We compared soldiers nowadays to soldiers in the Civil War and it was commonly believed by the students that there probably were few if any female soldiers then. However, inasmuch as there are female soldiers today, I stressed that they experience the Civil War anyway as a female, if they were indeed a female, and note their experiences accordingly in their journals.