Do you have students that shut down when they see word problems? Do you get frustrated when your students are able to solve word problems when working with you, the teacher, but not on their own? If you said “yes” to both or either of those questions, you are not alone!
I remember sitting one day with a group of students practicing solving multiplication and division word problems and just feeling frustrated. These students were able to successfully solve these word problems with me, but as soon as I gave them one to solve on their own, they either got stuck or solved the problem incorrectly. That is when it hit me! These students are successful with me because we walk STEP BY STEP through the word problem together. To be successful independently, I realized that they needed something to help them walk STEP BY STEP through the problem independently too. That is when I was introduced to the WITS problem solving strategy. This was a gamechanger for my students. They were now able to successfully solve word problems independently because this strategy walked them through each step of solving the word problem just like I would if I was with them.
Want to know more? Want to see how this 4 step strategy can help your students successfully solve word problems independently? Check out the 4 steps of the WITS problem solving strategy below and then check out a resource that can help you implement this strategy in your own classroom!
Step 1: W: What are you trying to figure out? Rewrite the question as an answer! This is a very important step, but most students will need support with this step when starting to use this strategy. Once there has been modeling and practice together with this step, you will see how much this step can truly help your students understand what they are solving!
Step 2: I: Identify the important information. Underline the information in the text. Then, rewrite the information that is important in helping write the equation and solve the word problem . When teaching your students how to do this step, it is important to help them understand that you need to look at more than just the numbers in the problem because sometimes there is more information in the problem that is not needed to help solve it. Also, I teach my students to just use this part as a place to write notes and not write sentences.
Step 3: T: Think and Solve! For the “Think” students use the information above to help them write the equation(s) that they are going to solve. Then, they solve that equation. It is important that you remind your students that they need ot “think” and identify the equation before trying to solve.
Step 4: S: Share your thinking! For this step, students will show or explain how they got their answer. I let my students show it using the inverse operation to prove their answer is correct or explain in their own words how they know the answer is correct.
Check out the picture below to see the WITS Strategy in action! Did you spot the mistake I made that one my students caught when I was solving this problem with them? Like I tell my students, even teachers make mistake 🙂
Would you like a resource that helps you implement this strategy and helps your students solve word problems independently using the WITS strategy? Click the button below to check out the different WITS Strategy packs that are available for both 3rd and 4th grade math standards. I hope this strategy helps your students solve math word problems independently as much as it has helped my 4th grade students!
