Purplemath.com is a useful website devoted to algebra from the student perspective, although some of their material can be helpful for teachers too. Work through their advice on Translating Word Problems, then take a look at some of the examples linked at the bottom of page 2. Select three different problems of the age, coin, distance, mixture, number, percent, or work problems and individually in your own words write up a brief description of the problem and how to solve it using algebra. Use one of the actual problems on the website; but do not select any of the area/volume/perimeter, investment, or quadratic word problems.
