Mrs. Ruiz's Digital Portfolio
Cognitively Guided Instruction in Mathematics
Equal Sharing with Candy Bars
This lesson is in alignment with Common Core State Standards :
Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a student-centered approach to teaching mathematics. By devising strategies for solving story problems based on their natural number sense, students acquire a deep understanding of mathematical practices and principles.
Making students' thinking visible is a CGI practice which helps students to understand their thinking more clearly and learn from the strategies of their peers.
(click on thumbnails to expand)
At the launch of the lesson, students receive multiple inputs of the story problem. This helps all students, and especially ELLs, to internalize the problem before transitioning to student work time.
Students work at flexible seating stations, in groups or independently, to discover strategies and number sentences to represent the story problem. During this time, I scout for strategies and students who are able to communicate their thinking.
Mathematicians selected during student work time communicate their strategies for their peers. Classmates evaluate and compare different strategies.
The lesson concludes with a period of discourse where students collaborate to make mathematical conjectures.
Student 1
Student 1 Prior Work
Student 2
Student 2 Prior Work
The students' work shows improvement in performing partitive division operations involving fractional parts.
Student Work with Multiple Strategies
This student is approaching an understanding that different operations can be used to solve equal sharing problems.
Anticipatory Planner
By anticipating the strategies students will use based on their prior work, I identify which strategies will best bridge students towards the learning goals of the lesson.