Aludlam Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 This is for dd9. Math has never been one of her strong subjects. We are finishing MUS beta and Horizons 2. She's moving along though. I'm so proud of her. Problem = Word Problems. She gets this deer in the headlights look when a problem that requires more than one step comes up, or if it's a mixture of problems (+/-). She has no problems with the math portion of the word problems. She has no problems with the reading of the problem. She rocks with her logic problems. She gets the same look in her eyes that I can remembering getting even through high school. I can remember having no idea what to do with word problems. I've tried various ways of explaining things to her: lets write down all the parts we know, look it's all parts of a puzzle or pie that fit together, it's the same kind of problems just in words, etc, etc, etc. Yesterday, a problem said that (I'm making this up from memory) Mr. Whoever had 517 ice cream cones, 357 were choc, 85 were vanilla, how many were strawberry? I said, ok first how many ice cream cones did he have in all? DEER DEER DEER. Sweety, it's the first line. It's written in the problem ... DEER DEER DEER eyes glazing over. HELP HELP HELP Tell me what I need! thank you all so much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 A couple of suggestions: (1) Simplify the problem slightly to get a feel for it. Here you might go with: okay... let's say he has 20 ice cream cones. 15 are chocolate, 2 are vanilla, how many are strawberry? You can use that to get the feel of the actual problem. (2) Use manipulatives or draw pictures. No, not 500... but thinking through what she'd draw or how she'd represent it can help with seeing the arithmetic. (3) I generally push "USE WORDS". First, write down the information from the problem so you're not staring at (gasp) a word problem! Instead, you're staring (on an otherwise blank sheet of paper) the information: 517 cones; 357 choc, 85 vanilla, ?? strawberry. Then (after sometimes thinking through the simplified problem) see what equation you can come up with. (I use the illustration with many of my students: "How would you explain it to your child?" May work for a younger sibling?). In this case, I'd be leading to: (# choc cones) + (# vanilla cones) + (# straw. cones) = (total cones). THen you can substitute in numbers, solve the equation, and go back to the set up in words to check and see if your answer makes sense. It's a slow process to get good at word problems, but it really pays off to put in the time. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 We switched to Singapore halfway through Horizons 3. They are very strong on word problems, and have a system of drawing the problems out that is very helpful. I bought a couple of books that had worked answersin the back so we could work out how they tackled the problems. It was a really, really rough transition, but dd came to love problems sums. I can't talk to the US Singapore books, but if you buy directly from Singapore there are some books with worked answers. I think we used Classroom Maths Workbook and Classroom Maths Problem Sums, both from the SG Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 :lurk5: This has always been my DD's bete noire when it comes to math. Give her an equation, and she can crank out the answer easy-peasy. Give her a word problem and :willy_nilly: I have her work through Singapore Challenging Word Problems (old editions), the word problems in Singapore Intensive Practice, the Kumon Word Problems series (a grade level up from where she's working in Singapore), the Hands-on Equations Verbal Problems book, and Edward Zaccaro's Challenge Math books. I really focus on this skill in math because real life math use is essentially word problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 DEER DEER DEER. Sweety, it's the first line. It's written in the problem ... DEER DEER DEER Give her an equation, and she can crank out the answer easy-peasy. Give her a word problem and :willy_nilly: :lol: :lol: I'm sorry to laugh, but these are exact descriptions of my dd9. She's been freaking out over word problems since she first laid eyes on them in first grade. Utter panic. We only started hs-ing last week, and one of the first things we did was to learn to do some bar diagrams in MM, so I'm hoping that'll help going forward (not holding my breath) (to be fair, she has some sort of language processing issue, which I still don't entirely comprehend, and I tend to lose patience). When she was younger, I used to try to get her to draw a picture (which she naturally refused to do, due to the panic), so I'd draw it for her, and then she'd see the answer instantly. But I don't know how to do that for more complicated problems. I think we're going to work on the bar diagram angle... :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 (edited) A couple more quick suggestions to add to and bump this thread back up; Immediate need: 1) sacrifice the word problems from your current math source, aka show her the book answer then work as a team to arrive at the book answer. 2) do not make her do most of the mental lifting, that will come later, your job is to model a good attack for her. 3) find a source of quality story/word problems I think there is a place for problems like the ice cream example, but it seems more a method to practice computation vs. problem solving. More later out of time; oh yeah when you are done working a problem or two, talk about it...reflect Edited January 17, 2011 by Ray Spelling repair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Simplify the problem slightly to get a feel for it. Here you might go with: okay... let's say he has 20 ice cream cones. 15 are chocolate, 2 are vanilla, how many are strawberry? You can use that to get the feel of the actual problem. I'm going to try this. I think I'll look at the problems in advance, make up new ones based on the ones she will be doing that day and work them on the white board. Then when she gets to them, maybe there will be the smallest spark of a light bulb. thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 We switched to Singapore halfway through Horizons 3. They are very strong on word problems, and have a system of drawing the problems out that is very helpful. I bought a couple of books that had worked answersin the back so we could work out how they tackled the problems. It was a really, really rough transition, but dd came to love problems sums. I can't talk to the US Singapore books, but if you buy directly from Singapore there are some books with worked answers. I think we used Classroom Maths Workbook and Classroom Maths Problem Sums, both from the SG Box. I'm envious that you made the switch. We did try MM, but it wasn't for her, but I'm not sure that it wasn't the format of the text. To much on the page, kwim? How long did it take YOU to learn how to do Singapore math? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 I have her work through Singapore Challenging Word Problems (old editions), the word problems in Singapore Intensive Practice, the Kumon Word Problems series (a grade level up from where she's working in Singapore), the Hands-on Equations Verbal Problems book, and Edward Zaccaro's Challenge Math books. . I'm going to look into some of these books. I've heard of some of them, but not all of them. I know a lot of people use CWP. Do you know if there is any difference (style/format/scope sequence/etc) between the old and new versions? Which level would you recommend for us? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakereese Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 My son is working through Horizons 2, and I wanted to get more practice with word problems. I added in this workbook. My plan was to do one a day, but sometimes we'll do 3 or 4 problems and then not do any for a few days. They start out really easy, and then build up a bit (we aren't quite halfway through). You could also just start with some really simple word problems that you make up yourself. You could type it up and print something out if you want, or just do it on a whiteboard. Just something easy to try to explain the process and to build up her confidence. You could even make the problems more interesting to her by using things she likes (a certain toy, or food or whatever...you know if you had 5 webkinz and your friend brought over 6 more....:D). Then maybe use workbooks or websites suggested for more practice. I still remember some of those crazy train leaving at such-and-such-a-time and arriving somewhere-or-other problems from middle school and it still makes me :banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aly Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I would also suggest looking at Singapore - they have a lot of word problems, and ample extra practice through the workbook, test book etc. My daughter was also a "deer in the headlight" math child when we pulled her out of school after 3rd grade. 2 years later she is above grade level and MUCH more confident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I'm envious that you made the switch. We did try MM, but it wasn't for her, but I'm not sure that it wasn't the format of the text. To much on the page, kwim? How long did it take YOU to learn how to do Singapore math? Let's preserve my dignity and just say that dd got it before I did! We really did take it slow - dd10 is generally academically solid, but we went back a Grade for Singapore, doing Gr3 in Gr4. We also did not do the full curriculum - we used one review book and one problem sum book, so we had lots of time for the problem sums. This year I am throwing caution to the wind, and we are skipping Gr4 altogether and moving onto Gr5 right away (we do a calendar year school year). I am a little anxious, but we will just work at it slowly... Nikki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justasque Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Can you work "word problems" into your daily life? "We have to set the table. It will be all five of us plus your brother's two friends. How many forks will we need?" Perhaps seeing how everyone does "word problems" in their daily life would help? Can you have her make up some word problems for you to solve? Can you change the theme of the word problems to something she loves? (For one of my students, everything is about wolves. For another, it's all about fashion.) Tell her it's ok to have no clue how to solve the whole thing right away. Instead, just follow the process. Write down what you know. Write down what you don't know. Draw a picture or diagram. If you still don't know, solve a simpler problem (substitute simpler numbers and see how you did it), etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2Tess&Gus Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 My daugter hates word problems as well. I love these suggestions...keep 'Em coming!:bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 My son is working through Horizons 2, and I wanted to get more practice with word problems. I added in this workbook. My plan was to do one a day, but sometimes we'll do 3 or 4 problems and then not do any for a few days. They start out really easy, and then build up a bit (we aren't quite halfway through). This works out good, b/c I'm already placing an Amazon order today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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