Word problems are very difficult for some students. There are a couple of strategies that we can teach our children to help them solve word problems with less math anxiety.
The first step to solving a word problem is to read it and figure out what answer they are looking for. This seems obvious but many students are so overwhelmed by the size of the problem, especially if they are reluctant readers that they can’t even get to the point of working the math.
Next, the student should make a chart or at least separate the numerical information from the words and write an equation. Important in this step is for the child to look for key words that will help them decide what the operation of the problem is. Words like total, sum, and together will indicate addition. How many fewer, and the difference between will indicate subtraction. Each operation has key words within the word problem to help decide what operation to perform.
Finally, once the numeric portion of the problem has been written out, the student should solve the problem, and then check to make sure that the answer they get matches the question asked in the problem. An additional step would be to have your student double check their math to make sure the answer is accurate.
Giving your student tools to break down word problems into mathematic equations will help her find all of the words less intimidating.
No comments:
Post a Comment