Description
Word problems are tricky, how can we teach them?
Our students look for the numbers in a word problem and often use addition as a way to get the answer. Some still use the so-called buzz words: when you read the word ‘more’ you need to add and for ‘less’ you need to subtract. This method is outdated as it can put students on the wrong foot. For example: Kaleb read 26 pages and Marit read 19 pages. How many more pages did Kaleb read? This is a comparison question that can be solve with subtraction. It is not an addition question. Schema can help them to work this out. Instead of just providing a schema and hoping it automatically finds its way to our students’ long-term memory, we can include specific instruction
