The document outlines a five step plan for solving math word problems: 1) Write down the question, 2) List known information and assign variables, 3) Write the algebraic equation, 4) Solve the equation for the unknown variable, 5) Use the variable to answer the original question. The plan helps students break down word problems into identifiable parts to discover what is given and needed to solve it.

1. Five Step Plan For Solving Math Word Problems

2. Five Step Plan
Part a): The students have to write down what they are
asking you to solve math online . Usually this could be
found in the sentence containing the question mark. If
the question was stated as a command, for example, 'Find
the number.' That would become the question to be
written in part a).

3. Part b): In part b) the students had to list what
information they were given and assign a variable to the
items that were unknown. Included in this section would
be a list of items and one of them would be equal to x.

4. Part c): Part c) is the algebraic equation that is needed to
solve for x. Writing the correct equation was often the
hardest part of this exercise, but with practice, students
became better at identifying the equation to be used.
Often it only required the student to translate an English
sentence into a math sentence. The verb in an English
sentence is equivalent to the equal sign in an equation.
The left hand side of the equation comes from all the
words in the sentence that appear before the verb. I
would instruct the students to write that information
down first and then put the equal sign. All the words in
the sentence after the verb were transcribed into an
algebraic expression and placed on the right hand side of
the equation.

5. Part d): Students would then use the equation that they
constructed in part c) and solve the equation for x. This
part of the plan requires students to know how to solve
various types of equations.

6. Part e): Using the value for x that they found in part d),
students then used that information to answer the
question asked in part a). Often finding the value of x is
not the answer to the word problem. Students need to
check with part b) to see what the x stood for and then
use it to answer the question. Students were required to
write part e) in a full sentence.

7. No matter what level of math - pre- algebra, algebra I,
algebra II, pre-calculus, calculus, trigonometry, or
statistics, using the Five Step Plan helps students to
discover exactly what information is given and what they
need to find in order to answer a word problem. Often
using a diagram can help to identify the variables needed
in part b). Once part b) is down on paper, then writing
the equation becomes much easier and students can use
their equation solving skills to find the answer to the
word problem.