Interpreting the Remainder with Four Strategies

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Four remainder-interpretation strategies — Drop It, Use It, Add It, and Keep It — are each explained with teacher notes describing when to apply them, then practiced through a modeled example and a matching word problem that students solve and illustrate. A 'Match It' page has students pair word problems with their correct division model, a 'Write It' page asks students to compose and solve their own word problem for each of the four categories, and a six-question 'Test It' mastery check closes the booklet. A complete answer key follows, showing worked division and the correct strategy applied to every practice page and mastery-check question. The booklet is copyrighted by 'Teachers R Us,' 2016.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Students will interpret division remainders using four strategies: dropping the remainder, using only the remainder, adding one to the quotient, or expressing the remainder as a fraction or decimal.
Students will determine which strategy fits a given real-world division word problem.
Students will solve and self-check six mastery-check word problems using the appropriate remainder strategy.

Teaching tips

Introduce each of the four strategies one at a time using the teacher notes provided before assigning the matching practice page.
Use the 'Match It' page as a quick formative check that students can identify the correct division model before they compute.
Assign the 'Test It' mastery check after all four strategies are taught, and use the included answer key to score student work efficiently.

Skills covered

Remainder interpretation — students choose among four strategies (drop, use, add, keep) based on what a division word problem is really asking.
Division word-problem modeling — students match word problems to visual division models on the 'Match It' page.
Self-generated word problems — students write and illustrate their own word problem for each remainder category on the 'Write It' page.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the booklet distinguish between when to 'Drop' a remainder versus when to 'Add' one to the quotient?

'Drop It' is used when the question asks for the full amount or whole items only, such as counting only the completely filled units in a sticker book; 'Add It' is used when everyone or everything must be included, such as finding how many tables are needed to seat an entire class.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

4.OA.A.3 — Solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having wholenumber answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.