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Edutopia
@edutopia.org

Word problems can feel like a lot for young learners. That’s where CUBES comes in: a step-by-step scaffold to help get them started. 🧱 Remember: It’s just one tool in their toolkit, not the whole toolbox. Keep pushing them to reason through the actual math, but starting with CUBES can help.

4 reposts8 likes

John Thomas
@flyfish29.bsky.social

This is a great strategy. My Ss attack word problems using 3 highlighters. Students highlight everything in a word problem in specific colors: Yellow for sentences that are directions. Pink for information, & blue for questions. It helps students read through a word problem.

John Thomas
@flyfish29.bsky.social

I also have Ss just highlight punctuation in a word problem. Then I say the shocking statement: Ss should NOT read fluently in math! I explain that Ss should read a word problem 1 sentence at a time. Then stop to be sure they understand before they move. Ss typically read problems too fast!

John Thomas
@flyfish29.bsky.social

In another lesson, I have students use highlighters to mark key words like more, less, altogether, and others. An added bonus: My younger students are getting to use big-kid highlighters in all these lessons, which is a "highlight" of their year. 😉