Students need to understand the meaning of the word problem and what it is asking in order to solve it properly. They should know what kind of problem it is, including whether it deals with distance, weight, numbers or area. Making diagrams or drawing charts can help students process through this step.
The student should then check to see if they can use a certain formula to solve the problem, such as the diameter of a circle times 3.14 equals the circumference of a circle. They will take all the information they have and put it into an equation or a series of equations. They need to be careful in this step, because some word problems toss in extra information that is not really needed. For example, Susie had 10 dogs, 20 cats and 19 goldfish. How many mammals did she have? In this case, the number of goldfish has no bearing on the problem.
In this step, the student needs to solve the equation or the series of equations. For the youngest children, sometimes visualizing this step helps them. For example, if 10 children went to the park and three children had to leave for lunch, how many children were left at the park? The teacher can physically bring 10 children to the front of the classroom and then send three students "home" to their seats. Children can count how many kids are left at the park. Visualizing also works well using objects such as marbles or pennies.
Go back to the original problem and insert the answer into to see if it is correct, if the problem works. Even if the answer is incorrect, this step can help the student find the right answer. Check to see if the solution is logical. For example, a result can't be a negative weight and if the student is adding or multiplying, the answer will be greater than the original values.
Document the answer clearly. Many students lose points because they fail to do this completely. Sometimes the number and one word is enough, such as "three marbles" or "14 hours." Other times, the child should write a sentence that states the answer. Teachers usually call identifying the object that goes with the number "labeling."