Do you ever have students who "grab numbers" out of story problems rather than making sense of the story and thinking about the situation? Working through story problems with kids was so frustrating for me until I discovered numberless story problems. I'm telling you -- these are a game changer for teachers AND students!

Numberless story problems scaffold the problem-solving process and force kids to think about the story situation because there aren't any numbers to "grab." They also provide opportunities for students to discover relationships in the story.

I have included a video of myself introducing a numberless story to a 2nd grade class. They had never seen a numberless story problem before, and you will see in the video that they productively struggled through the entire lesson. You will be amazed at how much the students improve after just a few times of working through a numberless story problem. You will see their confidence levels start to rise, too!

Below you will find a website that I recently discovered that I hope you will find helpful as you start doing numberless story problems with your class.

When you click on the link, scroll down and you will find that numberless story problems have already been created. What is even more exciting is that they are sorted by problem type according to Appendix A in our course of study. (Woo Hoo!)

All you have to do is click, copy, and paste! He has also included already made OPEN-ENDED questions that can guide you through each story problems. This website has been so helpful for me!

His blog posts about numberless story problems are also very insightful!

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if I can assist you in any way as you get started with these. Have a GREAT week!

K-5 School Improvement Math Specialist

Limestone County Schools

Email: emily.paschall@lcsk12.org
Twitter: @EmilyAPaschall