Strategic Thinking in Math

Mathematical Strategic Thinking supports the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice and was designed to help students to navigate the specialty questions that are found in high-stakes assessments where students not only need to demonstrate content mastery but higher strategic thinking skills as well. 

Often, the reason students miss questions on the CAASPP is not that they don’t understand the content or the vocabulary, it is because the way the question is designed requires higher levels of strategic thinking that students are not prepared to use. 

The four common stressors students face in the current model of high-stakes assessment include:

1. Content: Students either knew the content or they didn’t; that was a big case of why they missed the question (e.g. adding fractions).

2. Vocabulary: Students didn’t understand the wording of the question and it would sometimes throw them off (e.g. “denominator”).

3. Question Type: The CAASPP has several different types of tech-enhanced items including typing in their mathematical responses or equations, interacting with grid items like coordinate planes or line plots, drag and drop items, multiple choice questions, multi-select questions, matching tables, interactive tables, and short answer responses.  When students are exposed to so many different types of formatting they will often spend time trying to figure out how to navigate the question as opposed to doing just the math.

4. Strategic Thinking: Then, there are the types of strategic thinking these questions demand of them (e.g. claims, conditional, find and correct errors).  Many students have not been trained how to handle questions that require these skills and students will often be confused about what is being asked of them.  If students can be exposed to the types of thinking they will be asked to do on the CAASPP prior to taking it and taught some simple techniques for handling them, then students are less likely to be fooled by the question.