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

28 ◆ The Basic Framework

should be able to name the type of problem they are solving. The termi-
nology isn’t that important. It is the concept that teachers should emphasize
and that students should know. Students need to know that they are put-
ting stuff together or taking it apart. They should understand whether or
not they are looking for the amount in each group or if they are looking
for the amount of groups. They should think about whether this is a
one-step, two-step or multistep problem. This just helps students to unpack
a problem and make a plan for solving it. Because if students know what
they are looking for, then they are much more likely to find it!

Word Problems in the 21st Century

Students can either do some Web-based activities in the word problem
workstation or in the digital workstation (see Figure 2.12). There are some
great sites for students to practice word problems. Math Playground has
Thinking Blocks, where students can work through a series of models for
tape diagramming problems based on the operation. This is a fantastic
site: Math Playground: http://www.mathplayground.com/Thinking-
Blocks/thinking_blocks_start.html.
Greg Tang has also recently built a whole world of word problem
activities where students can pick the word problem by type and even

Picture Books/

Stories

Paper and

Virtual Tools

Internet Word

Problem Sites

Online Resources

Use picture books

as a launch into

different problem

contexts. There

is a great book

called Tall Tale

Math specifically

for grades 3–5

that mathematizes

tall tales.

Use a variety

of physical

and virtual

manipulatives to

solve problems.

For virtual

manipulatives

see: http://nlvm.

usu.edu/

http://www.

glencoe.

com/sites/

common_assets/

mathematics/

ebook_assets/

vmf/

VMF-Interface.

html

http://www.

mathplayground.

com/

thinkingblocks.

html

https://

learnzillion.com/

http://

gregtangmath.

com/materials

http://www.

mathplayground.

com/wp_videos.

html

http://www.

mathplayground.

com/

ThinkingBlocks/

thinking_blocks_

start.html

https://www.

illustrativemathe

matics.org/

http://www.

insidemathematics.

org/

https://sddial.k12.

sd.us/esa/grants/

sdcounts/

Figure 2.12 Problem-Solving Resources