Word problems try and tell students a story about the math problem in front of them. They are a useful way to connect abstract numbers to concrete situations, so students can learn early on to apply ...

Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

Key points Word problems that can be solved by the same arithmetic operation have varying difficulty. Problems that involve the inverse relation between addition and subtraction are more challenging.