Ridgewood Analogies

Ridgewood Analogies
Grades 4–8

Ridgewood Analogies teach students how to solve 5 different kinds of analogies that exemplify 5 different kinds of relationships:

* Descriptive analogies
* Comparative analogies
* Serial analogies
* Causal analogies
* Categorical analogies

Within each category, students encounter 4 levels of complexity. In the novice section, students choose 2 out of 6 words within a frame, which are related in the same way, and connect them with an arrow. In the apprentice level, students complete an analogy that is missing 1 word by choosing a word from the Word Bank to complete an analogy. In the masters level students choose 2 words from the Word Bank to complete an analogy. The super masters level provides additional challenge for students who have mastered the other levels.

This series of books, developed by teachers in the Ridgewood, New Jersey, Public Schools, is based on the curriculum they have been using with their elementary and middle-school students for the past 10 years.

Ridgewood students begin in kindergarten to use analogies in language arts, social studies, science, and math as a way of identifying relationships and making connections. Why? Teachers’ experience has been that solving analogies helps students become independent thinkers and problem solvers.

Once students learn how to solve analogies–and to create their own–they can use these abilities in any subject, as ways of learning and remembering information.

For example, when studying verb tenses, they can formulate grammar analogies:

begin : began : : sit : sat.

Students can create social studies analogies when studying American history:

Thomas Jefferson : Declaration of Independence : : James Madison : Constitution;

in math:

subtraction : addition : : division : multiplication,

5 : 10 : : 6 : 12,

and in science:

tadpole : frog : : caterpillar : moth.

Skills Addressed
• Categorizing
• Vocabulary across content areas
• Similarities and differences
• Analogies
• Comparison
• Critical thinking


For more information on individual components in this series, click on a title below.