Building Content Literacy Using Word Problems

 Unfortunately, defining literacy in math can be rather difficult because of the complexity of the subject.  Often we expect students to know how to solve equations, transfer knowledge from one type of problem to another but we forget to include the use of language.

Math has three types of words.  The words which have only mathematical means, those which carry both mathematical and regular meanings such as product, and words that are have only general means such as hello.  Many of our students who are below grade level are behind,  ELL, or special needs and struggle with understanding what they read.

Literacy includes both vocabulary and word problems.  If a student is struggling with language in general and the mathematical language in specific, they will find it extremely hard to solve word problems.  So in today's column, I'm sharing ways students can work on improving their literacy within mathematics.

1.  Review vocabulary words frequently used in word problems.  Discuss their possible meanings along with common usage.  Identify the words as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, power or root.  Take time to help students differentiate between fewer than meaning subtraction and fewer than meaning an inequality.

Divide the class up into small groups in multiple of four.  If you have 24 students, you might divide the class into four groups of six or eight groups of three.  You do not want them groups to be too large.  Give each group an envelope of word problems with a variety of words .  Have students go through the problems and highlight the important words which indicate the operation and other information needed to solve the question.

Once the groups have gone through their packet of words, it is time for them to solve the problems using the highlighted words. When all the problems are done, they can check with the teacher to see if they got the correct answers while explaining how they solved it.

2.  Teach students steps to learn to better solve word problems.  First, have students practice reading the word problems through at least two times. Teach them to break the word problem down into smaller parts so the problem becomes more manageable.  Take time to let students act out the situation or create something visual such as drawing a picture.  Just some way to let them visualize the problem.   In addition, help students learn to distinguish between fewer than meaning subtraction and fewer than meaning an inequality.

3.  For older students, I've had students learn to use the KFCW or Know - Find - Consider - Work.  My students refer to it as the Kentucky Fried Chicken Wings.   After reading the problem, they write down what they know.  Then they have to identify what they are asked to find.  The third step or consider is where they think about the math they have to do to solve the problem.  Do they have to do something like change ounces to pounds before they do anything else?  The last step is to actually do the work.  This helps because it makes them think about the mathematical operations needed.

4.  Other times, I had them identify the who, what, where, when, why, and how in the word problem.  I literally have them identify who is in the problem, what they are doing, where they are doing it, when did it happen, why did it happen and how did they do it.  Once everything is identified, they then work on solving the problem.  Since this is something they've done in English, it was easy for them to apply it in Math.

All of these activities help improve literacy in Mathematics, vocabulary and word problems.  If students understand all the words and comprehend what was written, they will do so much better.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.