Get Wise to Word Problems

Is your middle schooler stumped by word problems in math class? Here's an at-home activity that will help your child take a step back and see the big picture.

One type of assignment asks students to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, or, in essence, figure out which parts of the problem they need in order to solve it, and which parts they don’t. Here’s where you can use a term most kids are familiar with: TMI (too much information). Explain to your child that she’s looking for the TMI in the problem. For example:

“Terri and Sara are selling Girl Scout cookies this weekend. Each box of cookies costs $3.00. Terri sells 12 boxes on Saturday and 20 boxes on Sunday. Terri sold 50 boxes last year. Sara sells 9 boxes on Saturday and 21 boxes on Sunday. How much money total did the girls make this weekend?”

Help your child break down the problem and identify what she’s looking for. Have her circle or highlight sentences that contain information she needs. She needs to find out what the girls made this weekend, so she has to know what each girl sold on Saturday and Sunday. After she goes through and highlights all the sentences, the one left over should be “Terri sold 50 boxes last year.” TMI!

Another type of assignment will ask students to identify missing information: what do they still need to know in order to solve the problem? In this case, tell her to think about how annoying it is when a friend only gives her part of the story. Take a look at the previous example, only this time, take out a key details. For instance: