Word Problems

[blessed2fosteradopt]

My daughter is currently using CLE 3 for math.  She has CAPD and struggles with almost every single word problem.  I try to draw them out for her, use manipulatives, etc. but 70% of the time it does not compute. Is there a workbook that you can recommend that breaks down the problems visually?  Would Singapore starting at a low level be an option?

 

Thank you,

 

Lisa

[u2006kids]

http://www.mathtutordvd.com/products/The-Basic-Math-Word-Problem-Tutor.cfm

[sweetpea3829]

I really like Process Skills in Problem Solving (from Singapore).  It is really good at presenting problem solving.  

[redsquirrel]

I really like Process Skills in Problem Solving (from Singapore).  It is really good at presenting problem solving.  

 

:iagree:

 

Those books are all about breaking the steps down.  I would start with the first one and take it from there.  It's fine if it is too easy for her at first.  You might get through the first book quickly and that's ok.  You aren't using them to teach math, per se, but the process of doing the problems.  My son balked at drawing out the diagrams etc for every single problem at first but that was really the whole point. I think it was very helpful.

 

You can get them here:

 

http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_Supplement_s/57.htm

 

You might also consider the "visible thinking in mathematics' books

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Thank you so much for the suggestions and links. 

[Farrar]

I also like the Process Skills books, but my guess is that they're also going to be more complex problems than CLE's and even going down a level won't entirely eliminate that. A kid struggling with word problems is likely going to struggle to figure out what to do and it won't matter so much if the math boils down to 18+20 or 176+2489, you know? And that might be the biggest type of step between those 2nd and 3rd grade books (though I'm not totally sure... we started with the 4th grade book).

 

I would also suggest being her calculator during the problems (I used to do this a lot for my boys). The focus should be on solving the problem, not on the calculations.

 

And you can also write problems for her yourself. See if tailoring them to her life helps. And you know exactly the sort of problems she's struggling with.

 

And don't try to barrel through them for days on end. Take a break, come back to it. Some kids are always going to lag a little behind at this age on word problems. Give her a little time and then try again in a week or so.

[Alice]

I haven't used the Process Skills book but we do use Singapore. I usually have my kids do word problems books at a year lower than their current other text. That way they are focusing on the problem solving instead of the arithmetic skill. When they were first learning we would do them together, even having them watch me solve it seemed to help them learn the strategy. 

 

A typical routine would be that I solve a problem with them watching, then I would have them solve a problem verbally with me writing the numbers. I'd help by asking the question "What do you need to do: add, subtract, multiply or divide?" If they didn't know we would talk through each step. Then I would have them try one with me sitting nearby and easily available. Then they try more on their own. That wouldn't all be on one day, it might be over the course of a week or so and would repeat as the problems get harder. 

[kateingr]

I also like the Process Skills books, but my guess is that they're also going to be more complex problems than CLE's and even going down a level won't entirely eliminate that. A kid struggling with word problems is likely going to struggle to figure out what to do and it won't matter so much if the math boils down to 18+20 or 176+2489, you know? And that might be the biggest type of step between those 2nd and 3rd grade books (though I'm not totally sure... we started with the 4th grade book).

 

I would also suggest being her calculator during the problems (I used to do this a lot for my boys). The focus should be on solving the problem, not on the calculations.

 

 

Wise advice, Farrar. For a while, a focus on the process and not the actual calculations would probably help a lot. Or, use extremely small numbers (like, 2 and 4) so that the focus is on the operations and not the numbers. 

 

You may also want to focus for a while on physically acting out the problems. Drawing and manipulatives are great, but if she's having trouble connecting the operations to the stories, she may need to actually see real objects for a while to make the operations less abstract and give them more meaning. 

 

Also, I've only looked at a few samples, but CLE's wording for word problems seems particularly stilted. This is a problem for word problems in general, but CLE seems especially difficult in this respect. You might want to reword them to sound more natural, or add a little more detail to make them more intelligible. 

 

For example, here's a sample from 303: "Lori Ladybug will eat 210 aphids a week. She still has 120 aphids to eat. How many has Lori already eaten?" 

 

For a child who's struggling, this is really, really hard! It's a very weird way to think about ladybugs (I mean, it's not like they have a weekly aphid quota!), plus it's one of the most difficult subtraction situations for children to visualize. For your daughter, I might revamp this problem to something like: 

 

"I had 5 shirts that I needed to fold. I've folded some, but I still have 2 more shirts to fold. How many have I already folded?" (And then I would act this out with five real shirts.) 

 

This is a completely different situation than the ladybug problem, with completely different numbers, but it actually has the same structure as the original problem. Once she understands the structure of the problem, then it should be much easier for her to work up to more difficult numbers or different situations. 

 

"What if there are 10 shirts, and I still have 1 left to fold? Or 2 to fold? Or 3 to fold?"

 

"What if there are 20 shirts, and I still have 5 left to fold? Or 10 to fold? Or 15 to fold?"

 

"What if my book has 20 pages and I still have 10 pages left to read? How many pages have I already read?" (Again, same problem structure, but now in a different context.)

[Farrar]

Stilted wording is so difficult! Obviously you want kids to be able to work it out... but if they're struggling... yeah. This is part of why I said make your own and make them better.