In third grade the focus on math word problems becomes prominent. In the limited third grade research, teacher-mediated explicit instruction with multiple exemplars, teaching students to use visual representations, and the incorporation of self-strategies, have proven effective. For these practices to reach their full potential though, their…

Though research on effective instruction in math word problem solving is prominent at the middle and secondary levels, much less work has been done in elementary grades. In this article, we review the research on varied problem-solving instructional interventions at the third-grade level for students across ability levels. Third grade was chosen…