ABSTRACT
All students seem to struggle with word problems. Their struggle is often a language struggle. It reflects our primary use of symbolic decoding language (plus, minus, times, divided by) during the majority of our mathematical work. We save “word problem” language for word-problem–specific lessons. Consequently, when they read word problems students struggle with choosing the appropriate operation. In the previous chapters we’ve examined strategies for developing the language of word problems in all we do. In this chapter let’s delve deeper into techniques that have been used in the past and recommendations for building independence in solving word problems.
