Just like learning to ride a bike, learning how to solve word problems in math class can be a difficult skill for many students.   However, with a little creativity and some strategic instruction, word problems can become second nature, just like riding a bike! Keywords-The Training Wheels of Word Problems      When I was a 2nd grade teacher, I thought that keywords were super helpful when it came to students knowing what operation to use when solving word problems. And to be fair, they were, when the only operations my students used to solve word problems were adding and subtracting. But then I moved to 3rd grade. All of the sudden, keywords such as "in all" were being used for both addition and multiplication word problems. How were my students supposed to know which operation they should use if the keywords were used for multiple types of word problems?      Using keywords to help with word problems is like using training wheels on a bike. Whe...