Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

Organizational strategies that help students break complex word problems into manageable chunks may be the key to solving them, according to a 2025 study.

Zachary Champagne’s 3rd and 4th graders figure out early on that this math class will be different when their teacher tells them: “I don’t care about the answer.” The goal is to shift his elementary ...