Something about adding that pesky English language into math class makes everything that more confusing.

It’s day four of solving systems of equations, and suddenly students who were previously fine with solving a system, cannot see that the addition of words doesn’t change the math – in fact it gives nice application to it!

2 Shamrock Milkshakes and 4 McDoubles cost $6, and 3 Shamrock Milkshakes and 2 McDoubles cost $8 – how much is the cost of one McDouble?

The fact of the matter is, word problems are tricky.  Suddenly the mathematics that seemed far off and distant is given a real scenario that leaves you baffled into the realization that you actually need to think about a problem from a mathematical context. I am convinced that this has part to do with why one of the new Mathematical Practices designed into the Common Core is “Model with Mathematics.”  I want students to leave class feeling confident that they can actually use that mathematics in a daily, real-life context, and systems of equations really lends itself to that type of modeling.

What then can be done to take the problem out of word problems?

I think one of the things is engaging students to see word problems not as stiff-necked blocks of text from the textbook, but actual situations.  Thats why I brought in my McDonalds analogy above… but there needs to be more. I think that there needs to be a give and take, where students are encouraged to develop the question on their own, and reach for tools to solve it one their own.  This many times can be successful then as a Motivation for a lesson – using a Problem as the lesson’s goal, and allowing students to discover it as the lesson goes on.  This needs to be partnered with teaching students to use their mathematical tools appropriately – teaching students to ask, and answer, questions like “What do I already know?” and “What do I need to find out?” With this frame of mind, students should be able to develop, at least a head-start, into solving word problems.

Developing that mindset can often be difficult.  This isn’t done by giving students procedural after procedural type of problem, but rather presenting problems that model questioning of “What do I know… etc.” and cause them to really want to answer the questioning.  Procedural problems don’t challenge, so students really need to see more of these conceptual problems – like word problems, where they themselves need to develop the exact equations.

 

What are your thoughts on the Problems of Word Problems?