Teaching High School Students With Learning Disabilities to Use Model Drawing Strategy to Solve Fraction and Percentage Word Problems

This article describes how to teach fraction and percentage word problems using a model-drawing strategy. This cognitive strategy places emphasis on explicitly teaching students how to draw a schematic diagram to represent the qualitative relations described in the problem, and how to formulate the solution based on the schematic diagram. The step-by-step procedures for using the model-drawing strategy are described. In addition, the results of an action research study applying the model-drawing strategy with high school students who have learning disabilities are reported.