How Do I Help My Child With Their Problem Solving Homework?

We have increased the amount of problem solving this year and have included a weekly problem solving homework. With the new homework we have received many questions from parents. This is a letter that was created in response to helping parents understand why we are doing problem solving and how to support their child in the process. I used two great resources to help me articulate my points.
1. Powerful Problem Solving by Max Ray
2. Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics by Van de Walle, Karp, Lovin, and Bay-Williams

Each week your child is coming home with a problem solving problem. This weekly assignment probably stands out because of the purposeful struggle that these problems create. The problems that we select each week are “genuine problems”. They are problems that students have no prescribed or memorized rules or methods, and for which they do not have a perception that there is a specific “correct” solution method. This is in contrast with other math homework that has a series of math problems that students have practiced similar questions in class and may have a desired approach. In fact, the weekly problem solving problem most likely will not align with what we are working on in class. This traditional approach has not been successful for helping students understand or remember mathematics concepts.

Too many students struggle to learn math because they don’t have strategies to make sense of math scenarios or to work towards solutions on novel, challenging problems. When students reflect on their work and revise, their learning skyrockets, especially for students who have been struggling with problem solving. It’s not enough just to focus on getting the answers; we need to support them thinking about their thinking and learning from the problem-solving process.

To support students to make sense of and learn mathematics, it is vital to listen to their current thinking, value their ideas, and provide interesting follow-up questions or ideas that support them to reflect, revise, and rearrange.

    Strategies to support your child in their problem solving problems

• Do not tell them the answer or show them how to do the problem. That removes the problem solving and the thinking.

• Go through the problem solving template with your child. The template was created as a guide to support your child through approaching novel problems.

• Try different strategies

• Draw a picture or diagram
• Guess, check, revise
• Make an organized list
• Find a pattern
• Use objects
• Make a table
• Work backwards
• Make it simpler

• Have students reflect on what strategies they have tried, where they got stuck, or why a strategy did not work.

• Support your child in developing grit and persistence. If your child has worked on a problem for 20-30 minutes and has not reached a successful conclusion, celebrate their hard work and effort. Put the problem on hold for the night and come back to it the next day when they have more energy and can approach it with a fresh perspective.

Problem Solving Template

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