Lots of boys Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) My ds reads at grade level (he is 7 - almost 8) and happily reads Magic Tree house daily both to himself and outloud to me). He has great comprehension when reading (does great in WWE and SOTW narrations) and seems to soak up any knowledge he can from the numerous non-fiction books he reads constantly (he reads our varied encyclopedias for fun!). He does O.K. in math - he doesn't enjoy it but he does well in TT overall. However, he really struggles with any word problem. I thought given how well he does with reading and comprehension that math word problems would come naturally to him - THEY DON'T. He often has no idea where to start or what they are asking him to do with the numbers. I started working through CWP level 1 and he really struggles. When TT introduces a word problem he will memorize how to do it and get it correct but only if it is written exactly the same each time - otherwise he is lost. Any suggesions for helping him improve with word problems? Edited January 9, 2012 by agarnett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) My dd really struggled for a long time. She was an early reader with great comprehension. The problem is not comprehension of the words but knowing what math is needed to solve the problem. I wish I could say how dd improved but I can't. It was a sudden, almost overnight change that occurred around the time I could see her switching toward the logic stage. Does that make sense? ETA: she just turned 10 Edited January 9, 2012 by lorrainejmc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Can he do the problems if you read them to him, perhaps rewording any unusual language? Word problems sometimes have funky language that we adults don't notice, but that throws young students into confusion. For instance, when a word problem says, "If Joe gave George 23 stickers, how many would he have left?" students tend to start thinking, "Well, what if he didn't? Or what if he gave him 25 of them, or 19?..." I suppose they think the "if" part is the question, when all that "if" means in a math problem is "for this problem, we are going to say that the following is true...." If he cannot solve the problems when you do them orally, then I'd say his rote-learning skills have outstripped his understanding of math. In that case, I recommend a diet of all story problems, orally, in a give-and-take conversational game. You make up a problem for him to solve, and then he makes up one for you, and then you trade again. If he can't figure out how to solve a problem, act it out. Notice whether sets of things are being put together, or split apart, or separated into same-size groups, or whatever. Use the problems in the book as idea-starters, but translate them into familiar objects and activities to make them easier to imagine. I think this sort of story problem game is the most important thing you can do for a student your son's age. It provides a wonderful foundation for understanding math. If you let him go on with abstract, textbooky math calculations when he cannot do word problems, then all he is doing is learning trained-monkey tricks. He needs to understand what is behind the numbers, how they relate to real situations, how they express and represent things in the real world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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