Strategies To Solve Math Word Problems

It can be discouraging to spend hours preparing and teaching bell-to-bell only to have little or no improvement.Likewise, students themselves get frustrated as their confidence erodes.

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Problem-solving is not only one of the most important components of the study of mathematics; it permeates all aspects of life, including the professional world.

Problem-solving teaches students to be critical out-of-the-box thinkers, hone organizational skills, and build a rational thought process required for making logical decisions.

We’d covered all the skills they needed to solve problems, but during testing, I could do nothing but look on in silent despondency.

In the classroom, too, I recall spending weeks isolating a single mathematical topic and approaching it from every possible angle, only to present a question in word-problem form and have students respond with blank stares as the crickets chirped in the back row. " These kinds of basics might be worth refreshing before diving into other tips and tricks.

Students who are problem-solvers will someday pursue technical careers and become the researchers, inventors, designers, and engineers of the future.

There's only one problem with problem-solving: When we look at the math section of a standardized test like the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), particularly at the middle school level—where proficiency rates of students in grades 6-8 who met or exceed expectations in math fell under 35 percent in 2015-16—we can see that it is the word-problem portion that often trips students up.If we trace mathematical roots back to the earlier grade levels, we see that key words often help younger students create a problem-solving plan. ” Similarly, the word "fewer" indicates subtraction: "Marcy has six fewer cats than Nancy. My success has been to expose students to daily examples of process in more intentional ways.For example, we might use the word "more" as a clue for when to add: "Three kittens curled up on a blanket. Provide students with guided experience by practicing a variety of problems on the web, from math contests, and from previously published standardized tests.I've proctored standardized tests and witnessed students clicking the "skip" button or typing the letters "idk" (short for I don’t know) as soon as they were presented with a multistep word problem.I've seen students give up after only 15 minutes on a two-hour section.Christopher "Chris" Masullo is a professor of mathematics at Passaic County Community College in New Jersey.As a teacher of mathematics and computer science for over two decades, he has designed curricula and created original courses for STEM programs at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. You might need to figure out answers to the following questions: If your doctor gave you three pills and told you to take one every half hour, how long would they last you?In a certain family, there are seven sisters and each sister has one brother. Or, how much do you have if you divide 30 by one half?Students should also have the opportunity to explain their own problem-solving strategies to others in the classroom as they develop the strategies that work best for them.These steps will give students the tools to figure out that the pills the doctor gave would last one hour (you take one immediately, the second pill in 30 minutes, and the last pill 30 minutes after that); that the family has eight siblings (the seven sisters share the same brother); and 60 is what you get when you divide 30 in half.