What Happened When I Used Numberless Word Problems.

 

The other week, I wrote about numberless word problems.  I spent one week giving my students numberless word problems and a simple question.  Such as the first day, I asked students what they noticed and what they wondered about the problem.  Almost every student noticed I didn’t include any numbers and they promptly provided their own numbers and solved it.

The second day, I selected a different problem, again without any numbers and asked students what operation they needed to solve the problem.  I didn’t ask anything other than what operation is needed to solve the problem and most students answered by substituting numbers into the problem to get a numerical answer.

The third day, I provided a different problem and asked why I chose not to use numbers in the problem and again too many students put their own numbers in the problem to solve it.  The same thing happened on the 4th and 5th days.  

So based on this short trial, I can make some reasonable conclusions:

1.  Students do not actually read the problem.

2. Students have had it drilled into their thinking that all word problems must be solved, even if no numbers are provided.  

3. The solution seems to be more important than even deciding what operation is needed to solve the problem.

So I”m wondering if we spend too much time teaching students how to solve word problems rather than teaching them how problems are structured, how to “read” the actual problem, and how to look at a numberless word problem without the urge to solve it.  

Unfortunately, by high school, students are so into finding numbers and just solving the problems that I don’t think they really take time to read the problems.  I have one class that has a lot of word problems.  When they ask me how to solve each problem, I ask them to read it out loud to me before they even try to write out the problem.

I think it is important to move students past the feeling that they must have a numerical answer from any word problem immediately, rather than taking the time to explore the problem itself. It is almost like chugging a glass of wine rather than taking time to look at the color, checking out the aroma, and enjoying the flavors.  

I don’t know what it would take to get students to savor solving word problems.  Let me know what you think, I”d love to hear.  Have a great day.