Review: Solving Every Kind of Story Problem

This is not just for paper. Grown up problems arrive as situations, not as equations. Sorting the kind of situation is a lifelong skill. This is worth learning because naming the story type points you to the right operation immediately.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

Today you get to learn something useful. You have met four kinds of stories. Add to, where more arrive. Take from, where some leave. Put together, where two parts make a whole.

Compare, where you find how many more or fewer. For each one, find the numbers, name what they count, find the question, then decide plus or minus. Say the story back in your own words if you feel unsure. Naming the kind of story is half of solving it.

Try sorting before solving. Given several story problems, label each one add to, take from, put together, or compare before you compute anything. Sorting first is faster overall, because it stops you from starting down the wrong road. Go slowly the first time and faster the fifth time.