82 ◆ The Language of Word Problems
of others and decide whether or not it
makes sense, which is a process/practice.
Finally, they need to be able to explain
the thinking of others. Adams (1990)
noted, “The greater the time and effort
that a reader must invest in each indi-
vidual word the slimmer the likelihood
that preceding words of the phrase will
be remembered when it is time to put
them all together” (p. 141 ) (see Fig-
ure 5.2). These are serious challenges that
teachers must address when teaching
word problems.
- Word Problems Are a Distinct Genre
Several researchers have argued that math texts are a distinct genre and
that students have to learn how to unpack that type of genre (Winograd &
Higgins 1994/1995; Kang & Pham, 1995; Irujo, 2007). Spanos (1993) dis-
cusses how even though they are called “story problems,” they lack the
traditional storytelling devices (see Figure 5.3). Spanos gave this
example:
Sam’s truck weighs 4,725 pounds. The truck can carry 7,500 pounds of
rocks.
What is the total weight of the truck and full load?Spanos noted that in a real story, we would know more about Sam
and his truck. Who is he and why does he drive this truck? Where is he
going? In a real story we would have
more of a context, perhaps some para-
phrasing and repetition to help students
understand the word “load.” None of
this is given in this decontextualized tell-
ing of Sam and his truck. And why do
we care how much his truck weighs. Per-
haps in a traditional short story, Sam is
a trucker and has come to a weigh center
that says trucks carrying a load of more
than 10,000 pounds get fined. So, when
the truck gets weighed, they have to
deduct the truck weight from the total
weight to determine the load. This would
give some context to the “story problem”
situation.
Figure 5.2“Language proficiency
appears to be a contributing
factor in problem solving;
student performance on
word problems is generally
10–30% below that on com-
parable problems in numeric
format.” (U.S. Department
of Education, 2001)Figure 5.3“Major concerns about
basal programs include a
lack of adequate provision
for practice and review,
inadequate sequencing of
problems, and an absence
of strategy teaching and
step-by-step procedures for
teaching word problem
solving.” (Wilson & Sinde-
lar, 1991, p. 512)