Grades 3-5 Math Problem Solving in Action_ Getting Students to Love Word Problems

94 ◆ Reasoning About Problems

Figure 6.9 Word Problem Sort

Multiplication

Mark had 7 bags with

7 marbles in each bag.

Marta had shared 12 cookies

with her sister and cousin

equally. How many did each

girl get?

Division

Figure 6.10 Circle the Equation

Maribel had 4 bags and 5 rings in

each bag. How many rings did she

have altogether?

Circle all the correct expressions

that represent this problem.

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 4 + 4 + 4 + 4

4 + 5 4 × 5

Figure 6.11 Equation Match

15 ÷ 3

Circle a story that could match this

expression.

a. There are 15 kids and

they ate 3 apples.

b. There are 18 kids and

they ate 3 apples.

c. Three kids shared 15

apples.

d. Not here.

Matrix Problems

Matrix problems scaffold logical thinking for students. They have a place
to track what they are doing and think about and record all the informa-
tion they are getting. We need to bring back these types of problems into

Concentration Match

There are different versions of concentration match (see Figures 6.10 and
6.11). One version is where the students match the expression to the cor-
rect problem. The other version is the students find the story that goes
with an expression. Students need to be able to write the expression and/
or equation that matches a problem because it shows that they can reason
about the numbers—going from words to numbers. They also need to be
able to reason from the numbers and be able to think about which situa-
tions match this problem (thus going from numbers to words).