Word problems are difficult. Most adults surveyed can recall struggling with word problems in school, some even saying that they STILL struggle with word problems. That’s why I developed this 3 step method for teaching word problems.
As a student, I was good in upper elementary school working through procedures to solve math problems. However, I remember my distinct hatred of word problems. No matter how successful I was at solving a problem in isolation, I would almost always solve that same problem incorrectly when in word problem form.
Word Problems are Stories:
They have a setting, characters, and a plot that has a conflict requiring a solution. Yet, as teachers we teach math and reading separately, coming up with magic formulas to make word problems easier for our students.
However, teaching reading skills during math and focusing on making sense of the text (word problem) is precisely what our students need in order to make sense of word problems.
My research and 10+ years of classroom teaching experience focused on word problem instruction has led me to develop my three part approach to teaching word problems.
If you want to help your students understand word problems better, then you have to make word problem instruction a regular part of your day.
Using a daily word problem a day strategy, I support my students in understanding word problems that not only grows their accuracy, but their confidence when approaching word problem situations.
3 STEPS METHOD to Teaching Word Problems Successfully:
- Numberless Word Problems
Increasing student awareness of word problem type and structure happens when the numbers are taken out of word problems. We have created a culture of answer getting. Students are trained to find the answers as quickly as possible without thinking about the problem as a whole.
As soon as students see numbers in problems, they have blinders on, grabbing any and all numbers and TRYING the first operation they think will successfully work.
What we need to do is take the blinders off. We need our students to slow down, look at the context of the word problem, and make sense of its meaning. The solution of the problem is not the correct answer when we use numberless word problems.
Instead, asking our students what a problem is about, the story, is what we want our students to focus in on first.
We expect students to identity story elements in the texts they read. We should also expect and model to students how to make sense of a word problem before deciding how to solve.
We do this through numberless word problems.
Try this: Start your morning math time by displaying a numberless word problem of the day. Discuss the story of the problem using the following questions:
- Who are the characters in this problem?
- What is the setting?
- What is happening (the plot, conflict, verbs being used)?
- Have you ever done _____ before (make connections to students’ experiences)?
- What did you do in this situation?
- What can you infer we can do here to solve this problem?
- Can you make a picture (either illustration or model) to represent your thinking?
Numberless word problems are a necessary first step to helping students feel confident with word problems. The more we can help them understand the types of situations found in word problems, the more we increase their experience with problem types.
Research shows that broadening their experience with problem types increases their accuracy to select similar solutions to problems in the future. Therefore, a daily practice of numberless word problems will improve their experience, knowledge, and success with word problems overall.
STEP #2: Substitute Values
After students have made sense of the word problem, you can invite them to substitute numbers into the problem and solve using the ideas generated during the numberless discussion.
Student generated numbers are useful for a variety of reasons:
- Increases ownership of classroom learning
- Engagement increases as students are working with numbers they are comfortable with.
- Differentiation is easy when students are working with numbers that are at their level – you can also vary these numbers in small group situations to ensure ALL students have access to word problems at their level.
- Builds student understanding of word problem structure in selecting numbers that are appropriate for the task being solved.
Have students solve the problem using their solutions, then discuss the results that they found. It is okay that students have different numbers. Having a variety of results to discuss if the problem works encourages what we know is good for science: the more evidence and results the better.
STEP #3: Writing their own problems
When do we learn the most? When we create and make our own learning. That’s why it is essential that you have students write their own word problems using the daily word problem as a model.
When students write their own word problems using the daily example, they increase their understanding of the problem type. Just as we do in regular writing, we support students during the process.
Asking students to write a multiplication problem can be challenging, especially when we think about all the situations when multiplication is required: arrays, equal groups, or area problems.
The problem of the day model focuses student attention on one specific problem type. Let’s say our problem of the day was for national crayon day on March 31. This day would be the perfect day to discuss equal groups problems as stores sell boxes of crayons in set amounts or for a set price.
Instead of telling students to write a multiplication problem, focusing their attention on an equal groups problem requiring multiplication means that they know the TWO FACTORS, but do not know the total amount.
Support students in the writing process by displaying the equal groups anchor charts and sentence frames, either in print or digital form.
Students could then write their own word problem for the day, using a notebook page, or for special occasions like Halloween, you could use the word problem chains template to write their own problem and decorate the classroom.
Having students exchange their word problems with classmates or solve their own are also great ways to take the stigma out of word problems.
The benefit of keeping a word problem journal is that you could use student created word problems in your classroom learning, thus furthering student ownership and community.
Building word problem confidence doesn’t mean you have to use tricks and strategies that take the rigor out of learning. This three step daily routine not only builds student knowledge, confidence and accuracy with word problems, but it develops a classroom culture of community and math identity.
I created this daily routine to help my students find the joy of math, something that was lacking in my own classroom as a student. By
- Focusing on problem context with numberless word problems
- Building confidence by substituting numbers based on student abilities
- Authoring their own word problems
Your students will come to find that word problems aren’t scary and in need of magic formulas to solve them.
Are you ready to stop using word problem strategies that don’t work and put this three part plan into practice tomorrow?
I created a workshop on PopPD that helps you build confident word problem solvers. Learn more by clicking HERE.
Either way, I can’t wait to hear more about your students journey with word problems. Be sure to share connect with me on Instagram and share more of what your students are learning, or struggling with when it comes to word problems.
