Have any of you ever thought about why some students struggle so much with word problems? Although I have not had any experiences teaching in the math classroom, every time I started tutoring a new student one of the first thing they said was "I can't do word problems". They can know the math inside and out, but the second they see math in the form of a word problem or real-life application, they suddenly don't know what to do. Have you ever thought about why this might be the case?
As I was thinking about this on my way home one day I realized that maybe part of this is because we as teachers assume that students already know how to solve problems, even though this might not always be the case! From that moment on, I decided that once I become a math teacher, one of the first lessons that I will incorporate into my math classroom is taking the time to teach students how to approach word problems and how to develop their problem solving skills. Developing good problem solving skills in our students will benefit them in all aspects of their lives, not only mathematics. By giving students an outline of the steps they can take to solve a problem, as well as giving them time to practice this process, you are truly setting them up for success in their future. Unfortunately, some teachers may assume that students already have a good understanding of this process (even if they do not) and may not teach students this important life skill. For example, when I first started tutoring a client in grade 9 math one of the first things she told me was that she was extremely uncomfortable with word problems. Anytime a word problem came up, she would be very overwhelmed because she could not figure out how to approach the problem. The first time this happened I was not really sure what I could do to explain the problem to her. I quickly realized that this problem had nothing to do with her mathematical ability, but instead with how she tried to approach the problem. Therefore, I had to take the time to walk her through each step of the problem solving process. The first step was what she really struggled with so we spent a lot of time practicing how to analyze word problems to decide what information is important, and what information is not important. Then I would have her write out this important information, draw a picture if possible, and write out any mathematical formulas she thought she might need. At first she needed a lot of assistance throughout this process, however as time went on she needed less and less help. Over time, she became much more comfortable with word problems and can now apply these problem-solving steps without even being told. All she needed was someone to take the time to explain to her how to approach a problem.
What do you think? Is this something that you think you might incorporate into your classroom?
This is a wonderful post and discusses a challenge I think that many of us math teachers (and future math teachers) deal with on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI think you have skillfully outlined that the problem does not lay with the student's inability to do math, but instead how to decode what the problem is asking and what information is given.
I would absolutely incorporate modeled problem solving or word problems to my class. I like to critically read (and incorporate some literacy strategies) questions with my class and ask them to highlight verbs, numbers, units, and functions. Then we talk about what it could be asking. It might also be beneficial to develop a framework that you could post - using an anchor chart - on your classroom wall and have students refer to it when they are struggling with word problems.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. Students do struggle with word problems and "unpacking" the most important parts. I agree that we have to do a better job of teaching students strategies on how to approach a word problem, as well as teaching them important vocabulary that helps them uncover exactly what to do. At the same time, strengthening overall literacy skills is always beneficial. I found that ELL students sometimes have a lot of difficulty (understandably) in this area.
I know that my students get most stressed doing word problems in my class as well. I could not have put it better the problem does not lie with the ability of the student to do the actual math, it is with the students ability to understand the question and understand what is being asked in it. Students need to develop strategies to help them understand the question. I tell them to draw it if it helps and list the givens to begin then from that information find the math that needs to be used then solve. As simple as it sounds to us as teachers it is difficult for students to grasp because a word problem is never the same they have to learn to know where to apply the knowledge they learned. With guidelines and practice this is just another thing that can be mastered but we need to all focus on problem solving methods for students to use when they go to solve word problem. Simple steps to help them develop a strategy to help them get over this fear of word problems!
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