Picture this my teacher besties. You are solving word problems in your math class and every student, yes every student knows how to solve word problems without immediately entering a state of confusion! They know how to attack the problem head-on and have a method to solve every single problem that is presented to them.
How Do You Solve Word Problems in Math?
Ask yourself this, what do you think is the #1 phrase a student says as soon as they see a word problem?
You guessed it, my teacher friend, I don’t know how to do this! I think the most common question I get when I’m teaching my math classes, is how do I solve this?
Students see word problems and immediately enter freak-out mode! Let’s take solving word problems in the classroom and make it easier for students to SOLVE the problem!
How to Solve Word Problems Step by Step
There are so many methods that students can choose from when learning how to solve word problems. The 4 step method is the foundation for all of the methods that you will see, but what about a variation of the 4 step method that every student can do just because they get it.
Students are most likely confused about how to solve word problems because they have never used a consistent method over the years. I’m all about consistency in my classroom. Fortunately, in my school district, I get to teach most of the students year after year because of how small our class sizes are. So I’m going to give you a method based on the 4 step method, that allows all students to be successful at solving word problems.
Even the most unmotivated math student will learn how to solve word problems and not skip them!
Tips, Tricks, and Teaching Strategies to Solving Word Problems in Math
Going back to the 4 step method just in case you need a refresher. If you know me at all a little reminder of “oh yeah I remember that now” always helps me!
4 steps in solving word problems in math:
- Understand the Problem
- Plan the solution
- Solve the Problem
- Check the solution
This 4 step method is the basis of the method I’m going to tell you all about. The problem isn’t with the method itself, it is the fact that most students see word problems and just start panicking!
Why can they do an entire assignment and then see a word problem and then suddenly stop? Is there a reason why books are designed with word problems at the end?
These are questions that I constantly have asked myself over the last several years. I finally got to the point where my students needed a consistent approach to solving word problems that worked every single time.
The first thing I knew I needed to start doing was introducing students to word problems at the beginning of each lesson.
Once students first see the word problems at the beginning of the lesson, they are less likely to be scared of them when it comes time to do it by themselves!
This also will increase their confidence in the classroom. In case you missed it, I shared all about how I increase my students’ confidence in the classroom.
Wonder how increasing their confidence will help keep them motivated in the classroom?
So confident motivated students will see word problems that could be on their homework, any standardized test, and say I GOT THIS!
Steps to Solving Word Problems in Mathematics
We are ready to SOLVE any word problem our students are going to encounter in math class.
Here are my 5 easy steps to SOLVE any word problem in math:
- S – State the objective
- O – Outline your plan
- L – Look for Key Details – Information
- V – Verify and Solve
- E – Explain and check your solution
Do you want to learn how to implement this 5 steps problem-solving strategy into your classroom? I’m hosting a FREE workshop all about how to implement this strategy in your classroom!
I am so excited to be offering a workshop to increase students’ confidence in solving word problems. The workshop is held in my Facebook Group The Round Robin Math Community. It also will be sent straight to your inbox and you can watch it right now!
If you’re interested, join today and all the details will be sent to you ASAP!
I will see you there!
PS. Need the SOLVE method for your bulletin board for your students’ math journals/notebooks? Check out this bulletin board resource here:
Love, Robin
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