Let’s help our students solve Multi Step Word Problems

Multi step word problems can be very challenging for any grade. It all starts with the basics. You need to find a way to get your students to understand the scenarios first, and then they can identify the operation used to solve the problems. 

It is so important as a teacher to first help students identify the situation. It is so important to have the students put themselves in the story. 

1. Acting it out

I always have the students act out scenarios first. Just having the students act out a scenario provides them with an opportunity to see word problems in math as stories. 

One of the first activities I do every year in third grade is give each group of students a word problem and have them put together a skit to act out the problem. This activity helps your struggling learners to see word problems as stories. 

2. Introduce Numberless Word Problems

I start these numberless word problems as soon as I can each year. They make those students who continuously just guess as to what operation to use, really focuses on the scenario. 

I have created a step by step guide to help you with creating your own numberless word problems in your classroom. Grab it here! 

3. Drawing a Picture

This may seem super simple but I always have my students draw exactly what is happening in the word problem. They will simply read a sentence and then draw a sentence. When I have them do this it creates a way for them to slow down and focus on each step of the problem. 

4. CUBES

There are many different word problem solving strategies that people teach. I choose to use CUBES but as a disclaimer, this strategy will not work unless taught with other strategies above. Most students tend to just blindly CUBE the word problems and not truly focus on what is happening. So use this and another strategy listed above. 

5. Personalize your Word Problems

So I am not sure if you are like me, but I create a word problem for each day that we use to problem solve that day. It is used a spiral review for my class. If you put together some of your own word problems then you should add in your student’s names and your name into the problems. Just simply personalizing the word problems can get your students engaged.