The Problem of the Week is a weeklong homework assignment for each student. It will be assigned almost every week for the rest of the school year.

The purpose of the assignment is to challenge students and have them experience math differently. Through solving this problem and explaining their answers, they will be working on their ability to represent, communicate, defend, and support their strategies and solutions with mathematical arguments.

The purpose of this assignment is not to stress out parents, but to stretch your child's thinking. Below is a grading rubric of 1-4 that I will be using to grade the students' papers. Students are not required to get right answers, but instead to show their thinking and logic in solving the problems to the best of their ability.

Please work with your child on the problem, but let them approach the problem in their own way. If they're stuck, that's okay; maybe another student in the class will be able to help them. Please be supportive, while allowing them to all of the work and thinking themselves. Click here for an example of a correctly completed and documented Problem of the Week.

If you have any questions or comments, please email me (sharon.bullene@sesd.org). Also, feel free to give me feedback on how this assignment is working for your child. I would love to hear from you and we can always change anything that is not working.

Warmly,
Sharon Bullene 

Grading Rubric for the Problem of the Week

4	Student has an answer followed by an explanation of how they came to their answer. The student has attached all scratch paper they used to solve the problem. The student exceeds understanding and explains the problem using strategies and approaches that are above grade level. Thinking is logical, and work shown supports the answer and explanation they gave.
3	Student has an answer followed by an explanation of how they came to their answer. The student has attached all scratch paper used to solve the problem. The student understands and explains the problem using strategies and approaches that are at grade level. Thinking is logical and work shown supports the answer and explanation they gave.
2	Student may or may not have an answer. They do have an explanation of how they came to their answer or what they tried. The student's work is approaching understanding. Their explanation shows some strategy and logic, but does not explain clearly how they got their answer. Scratch paper on how they solved their problem is not attached or is not appropriate for the problem.
1	Student may or may not have an answer, followed by little or no explanation of how they came to their answer. Work is not shown or is not relevant to the problem.