Blog # 3: Reflecting on CGI

For the last few classes we have discussed CGI and from what I saw in the videos and learned through the discussions and the book CGI is something I could defiantly see myself using in the classroom. CGI makes more sense to me and is something that I think would be very valuable for my students. The videos we watched I found very interesting. Watching the students figure out the problems using their own methods was really eye opening, it just goes to show that students have their own ideas about numeration and numbers. Instead of giving them the formula to figure out 2X5 or 16-9 we can give them time to think through it on their own and come up with their own solutions. The bee question that was posed in the video really caught my attention, if one bee has 6 legs how many legs do 5 bees have. Instantly after asking the question students moved around the room finding the tools they want to use to help them solve the problem. One young boy grabbed a ruler and counted groups off the number line, another grabbed cubes and even used separate cubes to represent the bees themselves, and one little girl started using tally marks on her paper not needing the manipulatives that had been set out. Watching them solve these problems using their own strategies really got me thinking about the way I was taught multiplication. We were shown the proper way to multiply and given problems written out on a sheet of paper, there was not word problems or critical thinking skills being used. Using the CGI approach really opens the door for higher level critical thinking skills that allow student to formulate their own connections to math. After seeing the difference and reflecting on the studies we looked over on the first day of class I can’t understand why we don’t all teach math in this way.