Strategic Thinking in Math Question Sets

When preparing students for high-stakes math exams like the CAASPP, the key question educators need to answer is not what questions students are missing, but why they are missing them. Is the difficulty due to basic math content, technology, or specific strategic thinking skills?

To help educators pinpoint these issues, Classtime has developed question sets for every standard from Grades 1 to 8. These sets are designed to make it easy for teachers to identify whether content, technology, or strategic thinking is the root cause of student difficulties.

Question Set Design:

Each question set consists of 11 questions:

1. Introduction: The first question serves as an introduction.

2. Basic Content: Questions 2-5 focus on basic content and include one strategic thinking type.

3. Advanced Tech Types: Questions 6-9 introduce more challenging tech types, such as multiple correct answers, and more advanced strategic thinking types.

4. Explaining Thinking: The final two questions assess students' ability to explain their thinking.

Example Data Analysis:

Below is an example of the data generated from a Strategic Thinking in Math question set. A glance at the dashboard reveals that this class does not have an overall content problem. However, students begin to struggle with more advanced tech types and explaining their thinking.

Question 7: Students particularly struggled with this question. Most treated it as a multiple-choice question and selected only the easiest answer option (30 x 10). On high-stakes exams like the CAASPP, students would earn zero points for not selecting all correct answers. This indicates that the issue is not with the math content, but with the strategic thinking type, Situational Analysis.

Explain Thinking Questions: Students also had difficulties with these questions. While some students did the math correctly, they failed to explain their thinking, which would lead to zero points on an exam like the CAASPP. This shows that students do not need to be retaught the math content, but rather trained to explain their answers clearly.

The structure of these question sets allows teachers to accurately identify the reasons behind students' mistakes. This precise insight enables educators to tailor their instruction effectively, ensuring all students are well-prepared to tackle any math problem.