Life is a math equation. In order to gain the most, you have to know how to convert negatives into positives. –Anonymous
Do you teach fifth grade math? Check out this WORD PROBLEM FREEBIE and get started using these strategies right away!
Word problems.
The sound of those two little words can make even the most confident math student shudder a bit. They can be tricky, they can take a lot of work to figure out. Just as with difficult “stuff” we encounter in our everyday lives, we might make mistakes, we may not choose correctly the first time. But – the magic lies in our perseverance. Not giving up when it’s hard. Trying again and again until something works. The same is true with word problems and I have a few ideas about how we can help hook our students in and keep them from giving up.
Make them relatable!
Making word problems relatable AND meaningful to your group of students is key to word problem success. I always found that when I could use my knowledge of my students’ likes and interests within the problems themselves, they were much more likely to engage with the content.
For example – scrap that textbook word problem: “Harold has 24 jellybeans. He wants to know what ⅓ of 24 is,” and try making it about your hesitant student, Kaylee! “Kaylee spilled ⅓ of her dog Henry’s dog treats all over the floor after rushing into the house after dance practice. There were 24 dog treats in the bag before she spilled it. How many dog treats will she have to pick up off the floor?” Kaylee will love that she, her dog, and her dance practices are all front and center and is much more likely to persevere through the problem. The other students will enjoy hearing you put personal details into the problems as they patiently await their turn at word problem stardom.
Word problems are more than just numbers, operations, and strategies.
We need our students to understand the situation and to think through what is going on in order to figure out what they need to find out. Then, coming up with solutions that are reasonable becomes a bit easier. Let’s say they read Kaylee’s word problem and just think, “Oh, I have to divide those fractions to find out the fraction of the whole.” They divide 24 by ⅓ and get 1/72.
The student who spent time thinking through Kaylee’s situation is going to be much more likely to realize that this is not a reasonable solution to the problem. There can’t be 1/72 (a tiny piece of a whole) treats in the dog treat bag before it spills. There are dog treats all over the floor that need to be picked up, so the answer must be less than 24 but definitely greater than 1/72. Using class discussions, visuals, and having students sketch the problem in their notebooks before beginning are all great ways to allow students the chance to think through word problems.
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