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Making Sense of Joining and Separating
Addition and subtraction story problems can be classified into four distinct categories. Join problems are problems in which the action is to join two things. Separate problems are problems in which the action is the separate two things. It is important to note that join problems are not always solved by addition, and separate problems are not always solved by subtraction.
Comparison problems occur when two groups are being compared. Part-part-whole problems are looking at two different types of objects in a larger group. Both comparison and part-part-whole problems will have static verbs rather than action verbs.