My dear sister attached this photo to my Facebook page a couple of weeks back and it made me think. Growing up I was never good with word problems either, says the math teacher, because our instructors never reviewed or explained them to us. They were always those last two homework problems that no one ever attempted because homework was only checked for completion anyways. This past fall I had my Algebra 1 Honors students do visual projects based on word problems. I actually picked word problems that they could relate to and understand. They had to rewrite these word problems and break them apart by defining their variable, algebraic equation and solution. I then had them write out in words how they solved the problems and visually represent them on poster boards. Of course, I always give my students examples and allow them to work in groups...I heard somewhere that they learn more from each other than the instructor at times.
