Daily Multistep Word Problems for Special Education Probes and Math Instruction
In my 8 years as a special education teacher Word Problems became a big part of my life. In 5th Grade I was spending the whole year helping students solve Multistep Word Problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They don’t just involve whole numbers anymore either. The problems contain elapsed time, fractions, decimals, fraction/ decimal comparison, you name it! As a teacher of students with special needs this was daunting to say the least.
Further, many of my students had goals to be able to solve multistep word problems. This means I had to practice multistep word problems EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. with them as part of their specially designed instruction. Let that sink in. I was constantly looking for multistep problems on the internet and often found very little, found the font small or hard to read, or there wasn’t enough room for students to show their work to solve. It was so frustrating. I began creating my own word problems, including student’s name (which they loved). After a while I realized that I was creating word problems that others could use as well, because the resources just simply weren’t out there.
How to Multistep Word Problems into Instruction Daily
I began every math small group, every day with a multistep word problem. I personally love using the 4-Square Method or the UPS-Check (Understand, Picture, Solve, Check). This process pushes students to visualize the problem and if they can’t visualize it yet, draw pictures, and if they can’t draw pictures yet use manipulatives! Visualizing in 5th is a big deal. Students are told to visualize their reading all the time, but visualizing math, now that’s just crazy. But it works! Now you’re not only working on math but reading as well. Then something wonderful happens after days, or weeks, or months the students start using the graphic organizer independently, without me reminding them constantly. Another thing starts happening too, they start getting the right answer. Now yes, some of my students are using smaller numbers, some of them are using multiplication grids, and still others have a calculator accommodation, but they are solving them!
After years of creating word problem practice I decided to get smart. I decided to start putting them all in one document. This way I could go to my library of multistep word problems and find material for the whole week. Further, I began making probes for students to complete independently. Now many of those IEP goals I was working on would say things like “Student will correctly solve multistep word problems involving all operations, for 4 out of 5 problems or 80% accuracy, etc.” Have you ever tried to give a quick probe of 5 multistep word problems to a student who struggles with multistep word problems, on top of all the district and state assessments that a student has to complete? What a chore it all becomes. So, again I decided to have them complete one problem a day independently when we were not in the multistep word problem unit. This means that they are solving at least two problems a day.
Monthly Packs
I know most teachers are cringing at this thought, because that’s a lot of word problems. I decided the easiest way to keep myself organized was to group them by month. So fellow teachers out there, I’ve got your back. October is here, we will all have to survive the hype up to Halloween and the rebound the day after. I can take one thing off your back. I can give you access to a month long of multistep word problems here or visit my TPT Store where you can find Multistep Word Problems being released prior to each month. You can certainly give students one a day at the beginning of small or whole group, you can have them complete one a day independently, heck you can make a center out of them and have them complete as Task Cards for additional practice the day after Halloween when they’re all zombies from their sugar crash. In the end though, you will have a resource that is easy to read, scaffolded into harder and easier problems for successful use by all your students, and has a key for quick checking.
This product was true heart work for me because I knew that I was not the only general or special education teacher out there constantly recreating the wheel. Why recreate when we can upcreate. This means that I took all those problems that I worked so hard to create for my students and made them nicer to look at. I organized them and created something I’m pretty proud of. You don’t have to buy my product to implement the same methodology in your classes. I’m sure you have many saved word problems or (insert any standard for math and language arts here); organize them and save them. When they take your computer back at the end of the year make sure you have those files saved on Dropbox, Google Drive, or a flash drive. Stop undervaluing your hard work by letting those files be lost and deleted. Teachers are creative at their cores, we are constantly changing, adapting, and creating so that our students can become more engaged learners so put value in it.