Topic: Strategies for Solving Word Problems with Equations

Enduring Understandings:
I can use strategies to help myself solve math problems that are difficult for me.
Essential Questions:
How can I use strategies to help myself when solving word problems?
Primary Content Objectives:
Students will know: (facts/information)
Students will know the four main steps to solving a word problem (read it, sketch
it, solve it, check it).
Students will know that they can draw a pictures to represent equations.
Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)
Students will be able to apply the steps of solving word problems to word
problems that they are solving independently.
Students will be able to draw pictures to represent equations.
Related state or national standards:
Virginia Math SOL 7.14: The student will
b) Solve practical problems requiring the solution of one- and two-step linear
equations.
Assessment:
Diagnostic: Observation of student struggles in class / quiz problems
o Students in all of my classes, but especially my students in resource have
been struggling with word problems in practice and during assessments.
Students have been saying that they know how to solve the problem, but
they have no idea how to write the problem before they solve it. Many
times, they freeze up and do not complete the word problems on Do-Nows
and other assessments.
Formative: Observation of students during activity / student responses during
lesson.

o I will assess student progress based on their responses in time during the
lesson and decide if they need any re-teaching or any other scaffolding to
allow the lesson to move forward.
Formative: Student responses on problems completed independently.
o At the end of the lesson, I will collect graphic organizers that students
have been working on and assess their performance on the problems they
complete independently to see if they are employing the strategy on their
own.

Materials and Resources:

Laminated word problem checklists
Dry erase markers
Word problem graphic organizers / problems
Key Vocabulary and Definitions:
Variable the unknown number in an equation, what you solve for
Word Problem A problem that contains a real world situation.
Lesson Procedures:
1. Introduction and goal orientation:
a. Welcome students to their resource class, and tell them that we will be
working on something a little bit different during class today.
b. Let students know the schedule of what is going on during the resource
period:
i. Bathroom and water break
ii. Review of word problems
iii. Introduce word problem strategy
iv. Practice problems
v. Try some word problems ourselves
2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences:
a. Ask students to think about their past experiences with word problems,
and ask them what they think about word problems using some of the
following questions:
i. Who thinks word problems are harder than doing the regular
equations?
ii. Have you ever had trouble figuring out how to write the equation
with a word problem?
b. Tell students that we are going to look at a strategy that will help them
figure out how to attack and solve word problems, and this will be
something that they can use throughout, with all of their word problems of
all kinds throughout.
3. Tasks and activities:

a. Present word problem strategy and checklist to students. Tell students that
they can use this strategy with any kind of word problem they might come
across it doesnt matter if its about equations, inequalities, or
proportions (which we will learn later in the year.) I will give each student
a checklist and a dry erase marker, and we will talk through the steps of
the strategy together and explain them.
i. Read It
1. The first step of working on a word problem is going to be
to read it. Read it more than once, and dont let the words
trip you up, even though this is math class, I get it. But,
there are a couple of things you can do to make sure you
get all of the information you need from the problem.
2. Circle the numbers in the equation. Why do you think you
should do this? Anticipated answer because you are going
to need to incorporate your numbers into your problem in
some way, so its good to know where they are.
3. Underline the question. Why do you think you should do
this? Anticipated answer because you need to make sure
your equation is answering the right question! Otherwise,
all of your hard work will go to waste.
ii. Sketch It
1. The next step is going to be to draw or sketch a picture
this does not have to be complicated, and it shouldnt take
you very much time. This is just to translate this from
words into something that you can see. This might not
work for every person in this room, but we are going to try
it for right now, because you might find that you really like
it and it really helps you.
2. What if Im bad at drawing? This does not have to be an
elaborate thing this can be a chart, some tally marks,
circles and squiggles, anything that helps you to visualize
or represent the problem, and especially the numbers in the
problem.
3. Does your picture match your equation? Look back and see
if your drawing makes sense based on the information you
have from the problem.
iii. Solve It Now you guys know how to do the math. I see all of you
rocking out the equations weve been doing, and you could do
them all day. What is the hardest part of the word problem? Right,
making sure you find the right problem to solve because you
have to write it yourself. So these tips are mostly to help you all
write the correct problem, so you can solve and get the answer.

1. Start with the equal or inequality sign. I know before, I was

telling you guys to always put your equal sign down first,
but now that we have some inequalities and we might also
get word problems for those, we have to remember that
thats an option as well. But, why should I start with that
when I am writing my equation or inequality? Its a good
starting point. You know that all of the numbers are going
to go on either side of it, you know its always going to be
there, so its a good starting point.
2. Fill in the numbers you circled on the problem. We want to
make sure we have all of the information we need included
in the problem you are going to solve. Make sure you have
all of the numbers you circled in the problem included in
your equation in some way.
3. Does your equation or inequality have a variable? Is it in
the right place? Sometimes, I see equations on papers
written absolutely perfectly except for one thing except
the person forgot to put their variable in there, or they stuck
it in the wrong place. Make sure you have your variable in
there if you need one, and make sure your variable is in the
correct spot, or you will be doing all of that hard work on
the math with no payoff.
4. Does your equation or inequality match your picture? One
way we can check ourselves when we are making sure our
variable is in the right place is looking back and seeing if
our equation matches our picture in some way. We draw
those pictures so our problems make more sense to us, and
we can go back and use them to check ourselves.
iv. Check It
1. Did you do all of your steps correctly?
a. After youve gone through and done the math, this
is the time to make sure youve done that correctly.
What are some things we sometimes make mistakes
on when we are solving the problems? We all do it!
I remember when I was in high school, I would do
all of this fancy math and I would get the problem
wrong not because I didnt know how to do it it
came down to something simple, like a messed up
negative sign somewhere. So, I would go back and
check my negatives before I turned my test in
because I knew that would always get me. Who else

sometimes forgets a negative sign? Yeah, true! What

else do we know that we sometimes mess up on?
Right, and this is good thinking when we reflect
on the kinds of mistakes we make in math, it makes
it easier for us to go back and look for the things
that might have tripped us up!
2. Does your answer make sense?
a. And, ladies and gentlemen, before you decide your
answer is final, go back through and skim the
problem one more time and make sure your answer
makes sense with the story. If the problem is about
Johnny having 12 pieces of candy and giving them
away to other people, would it make sense to have
him ending up with more pieces of candy than he
started with? No! What if the problem asks you to
figure out how many people can fit on a bus, and
you get a negative number? Does that make sense?
No, because you cant have negative people! Okay,
so thats a good habit to get into, asking yourself if
your answer makes sense with the story before
moving on. That will really help you out.
b. Guided Practice using Graphic Organizer
i. We will do one problem together using the steps and the checklist,
as well as using a shared graphic organizer to organize the steps
together. I will call on students to help me make decisions and do
the problem together, and we will talk through the steps as we do
them.
c. Independent Practice using Graphic Organizer
i. After doing the one problem together, I will have students
complete another problem independently, using the steps and the
graphic organizer so I can see their progress with the procedure
and if they can apply it independently (with support) to a problem.
4. Closure:
a. Check in with students / discussion
i. After the lesson, as time allows, I want to check in with students
about their feelings on the strategy that was presented, and whether
they think it will be useful to them as they encounter word
problems in the future.
Accommodations for individual differences:

Chunking the steps of a complex problem into manageable steps in order to

make the multistep nature of word problems more accessible to students.
Graphic organizer to help students to keep the process straight this graphic
organizer is a scaffolding for the strategy that can be later taken away
Small group instruction in a targeted area of struggle for the students these are
students who we have noted have been having specific difficulty with word
problems especially on tests and quizzes.

Behavioral and organizational strategies:

Checklist and dry erase markers to allow students to have a visual reminder of the
procedure they should be using for solving the problems.
Using blue tickets as a reinforcer for on-task behavior, working on their problems,
answering questions, etc.
Allowing students to come up to the board and show their work to the class but
understanding that this might not be a motivating factor for all students, so being
cautious about who this opportunity is offered to and when.
Included Below:
Word Problem Checklist (to be cut out and laminated)
Word Problem Graphic Organizer

Word Problem Checklist:

Read It
Circled the numbers?
Underlined the question?
Sketch It
Does your picture answer the question?
Solve It
Start with an equal / inequality sign?
Fill in the numbers you circled?
Does your equation or inequality have a variable?
Is it in the right place?
Does your equation or inequality match your
picture?
Check It
Did you do all of the steps correctly?
Does your answer make sense with the story?

Name_______________________________

Word Problem Strategy

Read It

Mark had twice as many books as Ann. Then, he got 4 more. Now he has 26 books in
total. How many books does Ann have?

Sketch It

Solve It

Check It