Looking for a good book for math word problems (3rd and 4th grade)

[avazquez24]

I just ordered CLE for us to switch to for math (From BJU) and I've heard that CLE is a little "light" on the word problems.  I was looking for recommendations for something I can use to supplement with for just word problems?

[Jyhwkmama]

I also use CLE and have started using this for additional word problems. I would love to hear other suggestions though.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Kansas-Grade-Math-Test-Prep/dp/1505715288/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1428453664&sr=8-8&keywords=math+test+prep+kansas

 

ETA: Going to buy the Evan Moor teachers' file box next year. I think they have a word problem supplement book.

[mmasc]

We use CLE for my first and fourth graders. I just received in the mail today FAN Math Process Skills in Problem Solving 4 to use with my fourth grader. I can't say much about it since we haven't started it yet, but I got it based on many people suggesting it on this forum.

[Five More Minutes]

We've used FAN Math Process Skills in Problem Solving, followed by the corresponding level in Singapore's Challenging Word Problems. IMO, Process Skills is great for explicitly teaching problem-solving strategies, while CWP is invaluable in extending and mixing those strategies up. Process Skills is designed to provide lots of practice of a specific strategy that is being introduced, but students therefore don't have opportunity to look at a problem and decide which strategy or combination of strategies would be useful in that instance. That's where CWP comes in. FWIW, I have used CWP up to a full level behind where my student is in her main math program -- they are notoriously difficult.

 

Another good resource is Zaccaro's Challenge Math.

[sweetpea3829]

I'll add in my vote for Process Skills combined with Challenging Word Problems.  

[Jyhwkmama]

How do the FAN-Math books fall level wise? Do you use a below level book? My son will be in 6th grade in the fall.  Where do you buy them?

[ScoutTN]

We like the Singapore Challenging Word Problem nooks and Zaccaro too.

[Five More Minutes]

How do the FAN-Math books fall level wise? Do you use a below level book? My son will be in 6th grade in the fall.  Where do you buy them?

 

I purchased the Process Solving books from Rainbow Resource Centre.

 

If I were using them as my only word problem source, I would use them on-level, as the format makes them easy to work with. However, because I use them as an introduction to the harder CWP, which I tend to use a bit below level, I lead in with the related Process Skills book. We blitz the PSPS books, doing just enough of each type of problem to ensure the strategy is understood, and moving on. I'm guessing in a year I might spend 4-8 weeks on PSPS to introduce strategies, and the rest in CWP applying those strategies.

[sweetpea3829]

Ehhh, I think they are better a grade level behind.  Kiddos really should have a firm grasp of the concepts before you start asking them to use the model approach to problem solving.  IMO, of course.  

[alisoncooks]

:lurk5:

I'm thinking of adding problem solving workbooks to CLE next year, not sure which.

Following this thread for ideas...

[Five More Minutes]

Kiddos really should have a firm grasp of the concepts before you start asking them to use the model approach to problem solving.

 

Thinking about this (with which I agree), I'd modify my earlier comment about levels: for a student who is not using Singapore (or a related program) as the main math program, I would be strongly tempted to start a full level behind in PSPS and/or CWP. They will be dealing with a slightly different instructional style on top of the problem solving strategies, and they just don't need to deal with challenging computations at the same time. The books can always be accelerated if they're too easy, but it's harder to recover from an unnecessarily frustrating experience.

[LAmom]

How do you add these in?  We already spend almost 1 hour doing math daily.  Do you take one day to just do the word problems or do you do this daily in addition to their regular math lesson.  My one son gets every CLE word problem wrong!  He needs some extra work there.  So I have been looking into what word problem books to get.  I am not sure how I would implement the Process Skills AND CWP, though I would like to!

[walkermamaof4]

I use CLE math for one of my kids and I have Singapore Math 70 Must Know Word Problems Level 3 for Grade 4 students retail 12.99. Price $8 ppd if you'd be interested. Very helpful to my struggling math student. I have Zaccaro too I think. Both are like new.

[Five More Minutes]

How do you add these in?  We already spend almost 1 hour doing math daily.  Do you take one day to just do the word problems or do you do this daily in addition to their regular math lesson.  My one son gets every CLE word problem wrong!  He needs some extra work there.  So I have been looking into what word problem books to get.  I am not sure how I would implement the Process Skills AND CWP, though I would like to!

 

I've tried both ways of adding in word problem practice (a stand-alone day, and integrating in our daily routine). Our favourite has been to do a bit daily, or at least several times a week.

 

For starters, I don't use the PSPS books at the same time that I am using the CWP. For 1-3 months, I work through a level of PSPS with my student, using it as much as an instructional guide as a workbook. We do a problem together as an example, I assign her one (or two) to do, and we discuss the strategy. We frequently recap strategies that we've discussed so that she's got that list of options on her mind. We do not use every problem in the book.

 

Once PSPS is done for the level, we start the CWP. Again, we don't do every problem in the book. Each day I assign a page on which I've circled one or two problems for her to do. (I circle the hardest ones.) Sometimes we discuss problems before she starts (what strategy do you want to try here?); sometimes we only discuss them if she wasn't able to arrive at a solution.

 

It seems to take about 5 - 10 minutes a day. Right now I stop math after 45 minutes, regardless of where my dds are at in any of their math work. For my Gr. 4 student, any work not yet completed gets moved to her "independent work" period later on in the day. 

 

I don't know anything about CLE, but if your son is struggling with word problems, then I would highly recommend the PSPS book to start with, and would recommend starting with a lower level to build confidence. The books have helped *me* teach problem-solving strategies to my dds, and have helped them recognize different ways of approaching problems. CWP is excellent for challenging students with a variety of problems and making them apply all of those wonderful strategies, but it does not have explicit teaching in it. 

 

One idea would be to pause doing any word problems in CLE for the time being while you work separately on teaching him how to solve problems and identifying what is causing the challenge for him. Again, I don't know how CLE works, so that just may not be feasible. My thinking is that I would want to isolate something -- like word problems --  that seems to be causing repeated difficulty, figure out why it's causing so much trouble, and then find an instructional method that overcomes those challenges.