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Subscribe to Homeschool Math Newsletter - filled with math teaching information February 2010 newsletter
Latest from my blog This is where you'll find the latest happenings, news, & ideas in math teaching Math teaching videos My videos at YouTube show you how to teach concepts.
Divide decimals - why do we move the decimal point?
Hover your mouse above to open a menu of various worksheets you can generate for free! Advice, reviews, and resources to help you choose a math curriculum! Games you can play online, interactive tutorials, fun math websites and more. Arranged by topic/level for ease of use. Learn how to TEACH concepts or about general concerns in math education. Reviews In-depth reviews of math products Math help & tutoring A list of free message boards, math help websites, and online tutoring services. My Amazon Store See some math products I recommend. I have two games on my site, plus links to many. |
The problem with story problems in elementary mathematicsWHY do so many kids feel that word problems or story problems are difficult? You know, most kids love stories and words, and even problems and puzzles. So what is the problem with word problems? It surely can't start on 1st grade when you might have a story problem such as: There are five ducks on the lake and three on the shore. How many ducks are there total? Often the math book has a nice picture to accompany it. Surely kids don't think that as being difficult. Consider this "recipe" of a typical math book lesson: LESSON X So the word problems are usually in the end of the lesson. AND, have you noticed... If the lesson is about topic X, then the word problems are about the topic X too! For example, if the topic in the lesson is long division, then the word problems found in the lesson are extremely likely to be solved by long division. And, typically the word problems only have two numbers in them. So, even if you didn't understand a word in the word problem, you might be able to do it. Just try: let's say that the following made-up problem is found within a long division lesson. Can you solve it? La tienda tiene 870 sabanas en 9 colores diferentes. Hay la misma cantidad en cada color. Cuantos sabanas de cada color tiene la tienda? My thought is that over the years, when kids are exposed to such lessons over and over again, they kind of figure it out that it's mentally less demanding just not even read the problem too carefully. Why bother? Just take the two numbers and divide (or multiply, or add, or subtract) them and that's it. I'm not saying that such word problems are not needed in the end of division lessons. I'm sure they have their place. But too much of those simple 'routine' problems can be a problem... Students may "learn" a rule: "Word problems found in math books are solved by some routine or rule that you find in the beginning of the corresponding lesson." Another difficulty is that students tend to think linearly, step-by-step, and try make the numbers and the text match in the same order. For example, Jane had 25 pens and she gave away 15. How many does she have now? Answer: 25 - 5. Then, when the word problems they encounter don't anymore follow any step-by-step recipe, they are lost. For example: After giving away some cards, Jane now has 17 cards left of her original 30. How many cards did she give away? This time, 17-30 or 17 + 30 or 17 × 30 does not give you the answer. What you can do
Analyzing elementary math word problemsAfter studying a bunch of word problems WITHOUT calculating the answers but only thinking and finding which operation is needed to solve each problem, the student should start associating the types of situations with the appropriate operations:
Then there are some other subtraction situations: I would also devote extra attention to problems involving time. I'm not claiming this is a complete coverage of all the possible situations that are solved by single operation, but it can help if these ideas are explicitly taught to the students. ResourcesWord problems for kids Aunty Math Problem of the Week home page Primary Mathematics Challenging Word Problems I have some more word problem resources listed here. |
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Copyright 2003-2010 Maria Miller
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/
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