multiplication word problems

November 21, 2021December 28, 2021

Matching Activity for Multiplication Word Problems (and Creating)

Here is a matching activity on a Google Slides file for various multiplication word problems and matching groups of items. The students use gallery view of the slides and sort them to match. Then they can change the background color with a different color for each word problem and groups. This allows them a visual to represent the problem and an opportunity to analyze the components of the word problems. Slide 2 shows a template of an editable group of objects to allow you to create additional slides.

Here is a Google Slide file for student to create their own groups.

July 8, 2021

Handouts for Multiplication and Unit Rate Word Problems

Here are excerpts from two handouts I use to help students understand how to write multiplication and rate word problems as math expressions. The image, below at top, shows a problem from the first handout I present. The students draw a single group represented by the rate expression (for elementary school word problems the term rate is not used). The image at the bottom is the same problem with scaffolding to write the multiplication problem. I find that students working on rates and slope in middle school, high school, and even in college struggle with this topic. I use this approach as part of a review of prerequisite skills before getting into rate and slope.

July 7, 2021

Slippery Slope – 3rd Grade Multiplication Word Problems to Slope in Algebra

Top left is a scaffolding I use to help students learn to solve math problems using multiplication (3rd grade). The situations are typically rate problems (e.g., 5 pumpkins per plant or $2 per slice of pizza) although the term “rate” is not used yet. The same concept of rate plays out in high school with slope of a line, applied to real life situations (top right).

These types of problems start in 3rd grade (below, top left), play out in 6th grade (below, top right), into 8th grade (below, middle), and into high school algebra and statistics (below, bottom). I referenced this connection previously regarding word problems and dominoes. This highlights how crucial it is that strategically selected gaps in a student’s math education be addressed in context of long range planning.