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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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