Math Vitamins: Daily Dose for Students Learning How To Solve Word Problems

by Loretta Jean Everhart

For some students, the mere thought of solving a word problem can transform even the most confident among them into nervous wrecks. In her guidebook, Math Vitamins, retired educator Loretta Jean Everhart shares her methods of success that will help any student from Pre-K to fifth grade effectively solve even the most challenging word problems. Everhart taught elementary students for over thirty years and relies on her diverse experience working with students of all levels to offer useful techniques and step-by-step guidance that will lead parents and teachers through several ways to cope with math anxiety, improve math writing and vocabulary, and use cooperative learning to solve word problems. While providing simple strategies like having children work on jigsaw puzzles to learn guess and test methodologies, Everhart also shares an in-depth exploration of Polya's four-step model, which helps children first understand the problem and then develop a plan on how to answer it. For the parent of a home-schooled child or for teacher who is searching for new ideas, this innovative guidebook offers practical tips and suggestions that will help lead struggling students out of the often tricky world of word problems and onto a successful path of future problem solving.

164 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011