Problem Solving Model Read It Think It Solve It Explain It

Even students who are quick with math facts tin can get stuck when it comes to problem solving.

As soon as a concept is translated to a word problem, or a simple mathematical judgement contains an unknown, they're stumped.

That's because trouble solving requires us toconsciously choose the strategies most advisable for the problemat hand. And not all students have this metacognitive ability.

Only yous tin teach these strategies for problem solving.You simply need to know what they are.

Nosotros've compiled them here divided into iv categories:

Strategies for understanding a problem
Strategies for solving the problem
Strategies for working out
Strategies for checking the solution

Get to know these strategies and then model them explicitly to your students. Next time they dive into a rich problem, they'll be filling upwards their working out paper faster than ever!

Strategies for understanding a problem

Before students can solve a trouble, they need to know what information technology'due south asking them. This is often the get-go hurdle with discussion problems that don't specify a particular mathematical operation.

Encourage your students to:

Read and reread the question

They say they've read it, but take theyreally? Sometimes students will skip ahead equally soon every bit they've noticed one familiar piece of information or surrender trying to understand it if the problem doesn't brand sense at start glance.

Teach students to interpret a question past using self-monitoring strategies such equally:

Rereading a question more than slowly if it doesn't make sense the beginning fourth dimension
Asking for help
Highlighting or underlining important pieces of information.

Identify important and extraneous information

John is collecting money for his friend Ari's birthday. He starts with $5 of his own, and so Marcus gives him some other $5. How much does he have now?

As adults looking at the above problem, nosotros can instantly look by the names and the birthday scenario to see a simple addition problem. Students, even so, can struggle to determine what's relevant in the information that's been given to them.

Teach students to sort and sift the data in a problem to find what's relevant. A good way to do this is to take them swap out pieces of data to run into if the solution changes. If irresolute names, items or scenarios has no affect on the stop result, they'll realize that information technology doesn't need to be a point of focus while solving the problem.

Schema arroyo

This is a math intervention strategy that can make trouble solving easier for all students, regardless of ability.

Compare different word issues of the aforementioned type and construct a formula, or mathematical judgement stem, that applies to them all. For example, a simple subtraction bug could be expressed equally:

[Number/Quantity A] with [Number/Quantity B] removed becomes [terminate result].

This is the underlying procedure orschemastudents are being asked to use. Once they have a list of schema for dissimilar mathematical operations (addition, multiplication and and so on), they tin can have turns to apply them to an unfamiliar word problem and encounter which ane fits.

Complimentary problem solving worksheets

Strategies for solving the problem

Struggling students often believe math is something you lot either exercise automatically or don't practise at all. But that's not truthful. Assistance your students understand that they have a choice of problem-solving strategies to use, and if one doesn't work, they tin try another.

Here are four common strategies students can utilize for problem solving.

Visualizing

Visualizing an abstract trouble often makes it easier to solve. Students could draw a film or but draw tally marks on a piece of working out newspaper.

Encourage visualization by modeling it on the whiteboard and providing graphic organizers that have infinite for students to draw before they write downward the last number.

Guess and check

Show students how to make an educated estimate and then plug this respond back into the original problem. If information technology doesn't work, they can accommodate their initial guess higher or lower accordingly.

Find a pattern

To find patterns, testify students how to extract and listing all the relevant facts in a problem so they tin be easily compared. If they find a blueprint, they'll be able to locate the missing slice of information.

Work backward

Working backward is useful if students are tasked with finding an unknown number in a problem or mathematical sentence. For instance, if the trouble is 8 + x = 12, students tin can detect x by:

Starting with 12
Taking the viii from the 12
Being left with 4
Checking that 4 works when used instead of x

Strategies for working out

Now students take understood the problem and formulated a strategy, information technology'south time to put it into exercise. Just if they just launch in and do information technology, they might make it harder for themselves. Testify them how to piece of work through a problem effectively by:

Documenting working out

Model the procedure of writing downward every step you take to complete a math problem and provide working out newspaper when students are solving a problem. This will allow students to keep track of their thoughts and option up errors before they accomplish a final solution.

Cheque along the mode

Checking work as you go is some other crucial self-monitoring strategy for math learners. Model it to them with think aloud questions such every bit:

Does that final step look right?
Does this follow on from the step I took earlier?
Have I done whatever 'smaller' sums within the bigger problem that need checking?

Strategies for checking the solution

Students oftentimes make the mistake of thinking that speed is everything in math — and so they'll rush to get an answer down and move on without checking.

Only checking is important too. It allows them to pinpoint areas of difficulty as they come up up, and it enables them to tackle more than complex bug that require multiple checksearlier arriving at a final answer.

Here are some checking strategies y'all can promote:

Check with a partner

Comparing answers with a peer leads is a more reflective process than just receiving a tick from the teacher. If students take two different answers, encourage them to talk nearly how they arrived at them and compare working out methods. They'll figure out exactly where they went incorrect, and what they got correct.

Reread the problem with your solution

Nigh of the time, students volition be able to tell whether or not their answer is correct by putting information technology back into the initial problem. If it doesn't work or information technology just 'looks wrong', it'due south time to go back and ready information technology up.

Fixing mistakes

Prove students how to backtrack through their working out to find the exact point where they made a mistake. Emphasize that they can't practise this if they haven't written down everything in the commencement identify — so a single answer with no working out isn't equally impressive as they might call back!

Need more assistance developing trouble solving skills?

Read up on how to ready a problem solving and reasoning activity or explore Mathseeds and Mathletics, our laurels winning online math programs. They've got over 900 teacher tested trouble solving activities betwixt them!

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Source: https://www.3plearning.com/blog/math-problem-solving-strategies/