make sense of difficult problems, Brochure on an added benefit is that it also Problem Solving helps slow down my higher –ability Strategy for Kids students who sometimes rush through their work without always attending to precision. If you have never done so, give the CUBES strategy a try in your class- room. If it helps just one or two students make sense of tough word problems and feel more suc- cessful while doing so, it’s worth it.. Happy learning!
C U B E S E is for Eliminate the Extra Information This step requires the students to go back Strategy into the story problem to decide if there is any information that can be skipped or ig- nored. What is CUBES Strategy? The CUBES math strategy is a simple tool that teachers can teach their students to provide them with step-by-step actionable steps to pick apart and understand what is being asked in a story problem. Each letter of CUBES stands for B is for Box the Key Words an actionable item that students will do to When students draw a box around the key their word problems. words, they are often found within the question that was just underlined. This C is for Circle the Numbers step can be a bit tricky in certain situations. For example: “John has 12 green apples. After students read through the word S is for Solve and Check the Problem He has 4 more green apples than red. How problem the first time, instruct them to After the students have gone through the many red apples does John have?” In this CUBES math strategy steps, they have go back through and circle all of the instance, the students need to stop and gained a solid understanding of what the numbers or number words in the sto- think…”What is the question asking?” or story problem is about and what is being ry. asked. The final step is to take the numbers, “What does the question want to know?” decide what to do with the numbers, solve, and then check. Teach students to ask themselves, “Does the answer make sense?”
U is for Underline the Question
The next step is for the students to underline the question that is found within the story problem. Teach the students to think about the question and decide what exactly the question is asking them to do with numbers.