Adapting Reading Comprehension Strategies to Support Mathematical Word Problem Comprehension

Mathematical word problems are challenging and difficult for students. Students struggle with comprehending mathematical word problems, which leads to students not answering the word problem accurately. Comprehension of mathematical word problems is a challenging and difficult skill to acquire. Throughout my teaching career, I have observed the challenges mathematical word problems pose on students every year. There are numerous factors that contribute to a student’s ability to successfully answer all parts of a math word problem, but comprehension seems to be the leading factor for student’s ability to answer all parts of a mathematical word problem accurately. The purpose of this action research was to analyze the effects of using reading comprehension strategies in the mathematics classroom, specifically, while reading word problems. Over the course of ten weeks, student’s accuracy, completion, conceptual understanding, visual representations, and ability to comprehend a mathematical word problem improved.

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