How To Use Literacy Skills To Solve Math Word Problems

As a teacher, it is mandatory to come up with new plans and strategies to teach students mathematics. Sometimes, students get confused when learning equations, word problems, and other concepts. In order to make students confident in solving problems, it is the responsibility of the teacher to explain them in such a way that they can understand the applicable skills. Therefore, teachers should implement some strategies covering math word problems to prepare a layout for the students. If the basics are clear to the students, they can comfortably solve any math word problems.

For this purpose, literacy skills are the best option to choose. Literacy skills comprise reading, listening, speaking, and writing. These are the skills used by the teachers to teach the students math and its word problems. With the help of literacy skills, teachers can easily explain their lessons to the students and enhance their problem-solving abilities \ literacy skills are essential to solving problems of math. Let’s understand more about this concept.

9 literacy skills to solve math word problems:

Allow students to read aloud

Reading aloud is the best key to understanding any word problem and solving it effortlessly. Teachers should let the students read the problems carefully before they start writing.

With the help of good reading habits, students can recognize what the problem is about and which formula they should use to solve it. In addition, the teacher should encourage the students to read the problem aloud multiple times.

Encourage students to think about the word problems:

After reading the math word problems, the next step toward the solution is to think about word problems. In this step of literacy skills, teachers should teach the students how to think about the problems so that they can reach near solutions. 

• What does the word problem say? – After reading the problem, students should think about what the problem is and what it is all about. To do further tasks, students must ignore the extra information and grab only the main points. Students can underline the necessary parts so that they can remember them to solve the problem. Let’s understand with the help of an illustration: Ram and Shyam are good friends. Ram has 2 mangoes, and Shyam has 3 apples. How many fruits do they have altogether? In this problem, Ram and Shyam are good friends and are unnecessary pieces of information. Students should avoid it and underline the other main part of the problem.
• What are the focus keywords? – After underlining the focus points, now the time is to collect the keywords of the problem. If the students can recognize the keywords of the problems, they can solve them easily. Thus the teachers must teach the students about the keywords. It helps the students a lot to solve the problem. For example, if the problem is about addition, it includes altogether, combined, sum, plus, total, and so forth. If the problem is about subtraction, it includes minus, left, remaining, and many other keywords. 
• What can I do for the solution? – When the students reach the right conclusion, they can solve problems easily. Thus after finding the keywords, the students should have an idea about the problem, and now they can put a suitable equation to get the correct solution. 

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Make students write often

Just like reading and thinking, writing is also a necessary part to learn about word problems quickly. With the help of good writing habits, students can easily memorize the main concept.

For this purpose, teachers should take the initiative to make the students write a lot about the problems. In the beginning, students read the math word problems and write all the necessary information in their notebooks. They can circle the keywords and cross all the unnecessary information. This way, students can get a good hold of the word problems and solve them without making so much effort.

Therefore, writing practice will make the students more confident and provide them with satisfactory problem-solving skills.

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Allow students to ask questions

Reading and writing work wonders if all the concepts are clear. Teachers should allow the students to ask all the queries and doubts related to any math word problem.

All doubts should be cleared to solve any problem perfectly. Therefore, teachers should be available for the students to provide the answers to their questions.

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This literacy skill is very helpful to make the students confident and comfortable to solve math problems.

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Create good listening skills

In this step of literacy skills, teachers should manage some time to explain the students to the math concepts. Students must listen to these lessons carefully so that they can understand the problems and focus on solving them.

To do the same, teachers can take the help of videos and other activities to make students become good listeners. With the help of this set of skills, teachers can explain all the instructional pieces of information in the form of videos and other activities to the students.

This way, students can quickly get to the main concept and become familiar with the problems. It helps the students to enhance their understanding of the problem and they can confidently solve any difficult word problem.

Explain word problems by drawing pictures

Word problems can become easier with the help of pictures. Teachers should opt out of this way to explain any word problem to the students. This way, students can easily get to the point and understand the main concept. For this purpose, teachers can use any shape, such as circles, squares, and various other pictures that look interesting.

Students do this practice as fun and easily grasp the concept. Let’s understand with an example: Meena has 2 apples and 3 oranges. How many fruits does Meena have altogether?

In this word problem, teachers can draw pictures of apples and oranges. With the help of this way, students can easily count the objects and solve problems.

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Classroom activities

In order to teach the student word problems, teachers can organize classroom activities. In these activities, they can choose any topic that explains the importance of word problems.

This way, teachers can easily teach the concept of the problem with the help of props. For example, if the word problem is Ram has 5 pens, and Shyam has 6 pens.

How many pens do they have altogether? Teachers can use ice cream sticks here to explain the problem. It is the easiest way to make the students understand the problems and get accurate solutions.

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Assigning projects related to math

Project-making can be fun for the students and encourage them to show their skills. The teacher should use different project-making activities related to the math word problems after every few days.

Students can showcase their skills in making the activities, and this way, they can become more familiar with the concept. With the help of math projects, they can easily grasp the actual concept of the problems.

Having project-making activities can help the students to explore their hidden talents and make them confident. Therefore, it is a good idea to apply literacy skills to teach the students all the concepts of math problems.

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Play games in the classroom

Provided these games are related to math word problems, teachers should come up with the best idea to teach the students fun games in the classroom.

Here is an example: The teacher can divide the students into different teams and let them draw some pictures. Then, allow the students to count how many pictures are there.

Or teachers can tell the 10 students to draw circles and 10 students to draw rectangles, and so on. Then, tell the students to count all the circles and fewer rectangles from the circles.

Through these types of activities, students can easily learn concepts and formulas. Thus teachers must hold these fun activities or games in the classroom to enhance the problem-solving skills of the students.

Also read: How To Turn Math Word Problems Into Engaging Comics?

Takeaway 

Literacy skills are an essential tool to encourage students to understand problems and confidently solve them. Every teacher should use literacy skills in order to make the word problems easy and comfortable to understand by the students. If the students are familiar with reading and writing skills, they can understand what the word problem is all about. This way, they can write the solutions by themselves just by reading the problem. Therefore, literacy skills are an indispensable part of teaching students how to solve world problems.