Problem Solving

The Harcourt Math textbook has a Problem Solving Skill or Problem Solving Strategy in each chapter. It is usually the last lesson in each chapter. I am not using these lessons from the textbook at all this year. I am replacing them with my own problem solving lessons and materials.

The math tests still include questions that address the Problem Solving Skill or Problem Solving Strategy. I have informed the students that those questions are extra credit. If the students study the problem solving lesson on their own and answer those questions correctly on the test, then I award them extra credit points. For example, on the first math test, there were four extra credit questions, so the test was only worth 16 points. Some students answered all 16 required questions as well as the four extra credit questions correctly, so they earned 20 out of 16 points.

Those questions are extra credit, meaning that students are not required to answer them. They are not penalized for not answering them. If they answer them correctly, they earn extra credit points. If they answer an extra credit question incorrectly, they do not earn an extra credit point for that question. In other words, extra credit questions can only help the students. For example, on the first math test, they could have gotten all four extra credit questions incorrect and still earned 16 out of 16 on the math test.

Periodically, at the end of a chapter or unit in the math textbook, we'll take a break from the textbook and I will teach students some important problem solving strategies. I will explain these in more detail when I began that curriculum.