Word Problems: Friend or Foe?

     Word problems can be very daunting, you are supposed to be doing math, but instead of numbers all you see are words. You must determine relevant information out of a paragraph, figure out what function you will be using (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc), and then answer the question using whatever tools necessary. Here is an example of a "Unite Sets" word problem that I made, where you start with 2 separate sets, determine what to do with them, and end up with one set.

When working with children, as a teacher you must get them involved in the story of the problem, so that they can picture every aspect of the story in their head, and asking leading questions is a great way to get them focused an involved. Some good questions to ask about this problem would be, Who are the characters in the problem? What are they doing? Can you draw a picture of Jen and Maddie picking apples? Asking general questions about the problem helps younger children stay focused and visualize the problem, but with older children who are more accustomed to word problems you can skip this step and move on to examining the numbers. In this stage of the problem solving process you must get the student to pick out the relevant information. In this problem, ask the students how many apples Maddie picked and how many apples Jen picked. Ask the student to draw a picture of Maddie with her apples and Jen with her apples. This step allows the student to take what they have visualized and now see groups of numbers. 

     Next we have to solve to problem. Ask the student what happened to Maddie and Jen's apples? Where did they put the apples? This question leads the student into the addition part of the problem; because the problem never actually says to add or subtract or multiply, it is necessary for the student to determine this themselves. Thats the trickiest part of word problems for most students, which is why visualizations and manipulative are so helpful in these situations because they allow the student to see and to the function, then recognize it. In this particular problem, Jen and Maddie put all of their their apples together in a basket. Once the students know that put them all TOGETHER, they know the function necessary is to add. Once the student knows what to do they can still come up with the answer to the problem. Now all thats left to do is write out the problem and the solution as a numerical expression, in this case 4+3=7.

     Word problems seem time consuming, tedious, and tricky, but they are very beneficial to students because they teach students the concepts behind the functions and also how to determine what information is relevant. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics said in 2000 that, “Problem solving is the cornerstone of school mathematics. Unless students can solve problems, the facts, concepts, and procedures they know are of little use.” And like so many other valuable skills, practice makes perfect. Here's a link to Thinking Blocks, an interactive tool for students to practice word problems using different functions. Check it out and good luck!