Mathematize It! [Grades 6-8]: Going Beyond Key Words to Make Sense of Word Problems, Grades 6-8

Help students reveal the math behind the words

"I don’t get what I’m supposed to do!" This is a common refrain from students when asked to solve word problems.

Solving problems is about more than computation. Students must understand the mathematics of a situation to know what computation will lead to an appropriate solution. Many students often pluck numbers from the problem and plug them into an equation using the first operation they can think of (or the last one they practiced). Stude...