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.

Remainder. Product. Algorithm. Ordered pair. Seemingly jargony words and phrases like these, referring to specific math concepts, might seem complex for elementary school students to grasp. But ...

Segue Institute for Learning teacher Cassandra Santiago introduces a lesson on word problems to her first graders one spring afternoon. Credit: Phillip Keith for The Hechinger Report The Hechinger ...