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Teaching story problems

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When teaching story problems, the trick is seeing quantities and how they relate, instead of just seeing numbers. This is the task of translating a situation explained in words into a mathematical equation by using symbols. The student needs to be able to create a mental formula of the information in the story problem. They need to step out of any numbers in the story problem, and see the general quantities involved. In very simple story problems that relationship involves just one of the four basic operations.

· Examples of addition story problems:
Jenny has 7 marbles and Kenny has 5. How many do they have together?

The keyword “together” in the problem tells us that it is an addition story problem. The quantities here are Jenny's marbles, Kenny's marbles, and total marbles i.e.—Jenny's marbles + Kenny's marbles = Total marbles
Teaching this story problem, the number sentence: 7 + 5 = __
The __ in the place of total marbles is what we do not know.

For teaching story problems all this may look overly simplified, but helping children to see the underlying relationship between the quantities is essential.

Now consider this example of a story problem:
Jenny and Kenny together have 37 marbles, and Kenny has 15. How many does Jenny have?

In teaching story problems one might be inclined to explain this as a subtraction problem, however at the most fundamental level it is a story problem about addition! The story problem still talks about two people having certain amount of marbles together. And in teaching this story problem, we still need to write an addition sentence/equation.

Relationship: Jenny's marbles + Kenny's marbles = Total marbles
Number sentence: __ + 15 = 37

· Teaching story problems in subtraction:
Keywords in the story problem which indicates subtraction is when it asks: how many or how much more?

Example: Ted read 17 pages today, and Fred read 28. How many more pages did Fred read?

The solution to this story problem is of course 28 - 17 = 11. However, it is not enough in teaching story problems to simply announce that. The children need to understand that in this story problem the difference is the result of subtraction and answers the question: How much more?

Relationship: Pages Fred read - pages Ted read = difference
Equation: 28 – 17 = __ .


If you go directly to number sentences when teaching story problems your students will not see the step must take place mentally before that. The quantities and the relationship between them must be made clear and written out when teaching story problems, before you start working with the children using the actual numbers. Finding this relationship is the most important part of teaching story problems.

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