◆ 11
Real Stories, Deep
Understanding
We Don’t Grow Cornfields
in the South Bronx
Researchers have found that story problems “are notoriously difficult to
solve” (Cummins, Kintsh, Reusser & Weimer, 1988). Geary (1994) found that
“children make more errors when solving word problems than when solving
comparable number problems” (p. 96). Koedinger and Nathan (2004) note
that Gary Larson’s cartoon captioned “Hell’s Library” has bookshelves full
of titles like Story Problems, More Story Problems and Story Problems Galore
and is a powerful commentary on how we feel as a society about story
problems.
Students hate problem solving, but it should be presented as a chal-
lenge. Students should look forward to working with word problems
because it’s the stuff they do every day. We simply have to mathematize
the stuff they do every day. Students should own the problems they solve
and pose. They should tell problems about their families, their friends,
their daily activities, their school and their lives. If the problems made
sense to the students, then students could make sense of the problems.
Often I hear people talk and write about real-life problems, and when
I look at some of those problems, I think to myself, “Whose life is that?”
When I am teaching in the South Bronx, a problem about rows of corn in
a cornfield isn’t exactly a go-to example. However, if I talk about getting
some candy from the corner bodega (small grocery store), then everybody
is with me. Now, this is not to say that they won’t be able to solve the
problem about the rows of corn in the Nebraska cornfield, but it is to say
that the starting point isn’t Nebraska.
Real-Life Examples about Real-Life Problems
A few years ago, I was in the South Bronx working with a brand-new
fifth-grade teacher. I walked into his classroom and he looked visibly
relieved to see me coming through the door. He said, “Hey, Dr. Nicki. We
are working on dividing decimals.” He pointed to a problem about