I’m looking for some ideas on how to teach the process for “deciphering” word problems to a 5th grader. I wrote his IEP objectives to say that he would be able to identify the key words in the problems that denote a specific operation, that he would be able to identify if a problem is 1 step or 2, name the operation(s) for each step, and then solve it. I’ve backed him up to word problems at a 3rd grade level; he’s ok with ones that have the traditional addition and subtraction language, but has a hard time deciding when/if it involves multiplication and/or division. One problem is that there aren’t any hard and fast rules I can give him for recognizing multiplication and division off the bat. I’m trying to get him to read the problem, look for any key words, think about what it’s asking, draw a diagram if possible. I’m trying to get him to recognize that “___ groups of ___ ” is a multiplication problem, but since they’re not stated like that he has to be able to reason that out. Any ideas or suggestions??
Re: Help teaching word problems
Thanks Sue ~ I’ve done the “each” trick with him, but I think we’ll have to cover it for quite a bit longer before he remembers. I didn’t think of “of” ~ I’ll try that next week. I’ll see if I can find Marilyn Burns’ book. Thanks again! Jenn
Re: Help teaching word problems
I have endured the math word problems and concepts for years now. My son is 15 and doing Saxon Math 76 (that is 6th grade) Saxon is a good system. You may have to go back a book or two and build on knowledge as you go. The best person I found for input was a speech language therapist who is interested in students with LD. Mine works for the Scottish Rites Masons in Oklahoma. We have been fighting the fight together, she sees Clint privately. There is a certain language to word problems and to math in general. I can recommend Landmark School publications for ideas too.
Re: Help teaching word problems
Key words are a dead end, unfortunately. They take you a certain distance and you think you’re close to where you want to go, but then you hit that brick wall and either give up forever or have to back up.
Going back and starting at a level he understands is a very good thing. The next thing that is necessary is to visualize or otherwise concretize, to put himself in the problem, and to make a habit of constantly reality-checking.
For a bad example: I was correcting correspondence papers in Grade 9 science. In one problem they had to use a formula to find the focal length, from lens to film, of a camera. The problem done properly would require dividing some decimals and then multiplying by something else. Every single student I had, nearly a hundred students, preferred to do the work the more “comfortable” way and did the division backwards; they all happily reported that the camera was 10 meters (33 feet) long, instead of 0.1 meter (4 inches). No key words or any other trick will solve this, but some common sense will.
Imagine yourself as one of the characters in a problem and ask what you would do in this situation. Draw a sketch. Draw a map. Use concrete objects, and when that gets tedious, make sketches of them. Try some possible values and look for patterns. Make charts of values and look for patterns. Suppose you know the answer and work back — what would have helped you get that last step, second-last, …?
Sure, this takes time. It’s an investment of time now not to have to red-do everything twice over in high school and college.
“of” means times — that usually covers a bunch of ‘em. “Each” is another key word — if it’s the same thing and “each” thing happens a bunch of “times” – amazing! “times” means to multiply :)
Division is a *lot* tougher. I would focus on the multiplication and get those concepts down — it’s also very possible/ likely that he doesn’t really have that connection. Show him as many pictures as possible of those word problems as well as pictures for just the times tables — say, with rows of stars, so that he starts to automatically picture 4 rows of 3 things when he confronts “4 x 3.”
Marilyn Burns’ times tables book has a lot of good ideas to help.