GUIDELINES FOR USING PROBLEM SOLVING RUBRIC
“A great discovery solves a great problem, but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any
problem. Your problem may be modest, but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your
inventive faculties, and it you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy
the triumph of discovery.
George Polya, 1954

This rubric should be used with select tasks. Use it with a task that:
1. Is problematic. That is, a task that it is interesting and in which there is something
students need to make sense of or find out.
2. Requires students to connect knowledge and skills they already have to develop a
method for completing the task.
3. Engages students in reflecting on important mathematical ideas. In other words, the
experience enables them to take gain something of mathematical value.
4. Enables students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of familiar
procedures and concepts.

Before using a task, think about the following questions:
1. What is the underlying mathematics? What concepts are needed, developed, and/or
practiced?
2. What will the resulting work tell you about what students know?
3. How can you use the process to inform instruction?

The district’s problem solving rubric informs instruction for developing problem solving
thinking. Tasks can be pulled from the district math website and curriculum.

To be most effective, the teacher must model the use of the rubric in the problem solving
process with the whole class first. Afterwards, students can use the rubric to judge their own
work and work of their classmates. Further, the rubric can create a lens that focuses on
improvement in a specific category(ies).

Corrective feedback should specifically reference sections of the rubric. Students may be on
different levels of the rubric in each section (i.e. answer, work, vocab., etc.).

The best corrective feedback happens during a teacher-student conference in which the
participants discuss areas of strength and specific ways the work can be improved so that it
reaches the next level of proficiency as described in each category.

PSSA open-ended response questions address skill and concept understanding attached to
grade level eligible content. They lend themselves to be scored using an analytic rubric that
assigns points for correct answer and explanation. The rubrics provided by the state and
released items should guide PSSA practice.

Analytic, item-specific rubrics can be used side-by-side with this descriptive rubric.

Different kinds of tasks require different responses. Students must pay close attention to
what is asked, answering exactly what is required of them (not more, nor less).
R. Ittigson, 12/20/07