In a CGI classroom, problem solving and student thinking is at the center of instruction.  Teachers pose purposeful problems, many problem solving strategies are used by students, students communicate their thinking, and teachers use this information to plan further instruction.  The RCOE math team is committed to helping districts, sites, and teachers implement CGI.

Principles of CGI

  1. Every student comes to math class knowing some mathematics.
  2. Every student is capable of extending their mathematical ideas.
  3. Knowing the trajectory of children’s thinking helps you know how to support that extension - ”What am I working toward?”
  4. Details of children’s thinking support instructional decision making.
  5. Must challenge our assumptions about what students know and are able to do.
  6. Must create space for the participation of each and honor the different ways in which students are participating.
  7. Identity shapes participation, so we want to position students competently.

Developing Mathematical Language and Understanding TK-2


Berkeley Everett Why Math?

Mathematics Influence with Berkeley Everett

CGI Resources
Downey USD - Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI)

CGI Books

  • Children's Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction
  • Extending Children’s Mathematics: Fractions and Decimals
  • Young Children’s Mathematics: CGI in Early Childhood Education
  • Choral Counting and Counting Collections

Routines and Activities the Align to the Principles of CGI

  • Notice and Wonder
  • Counting Collections
  • Choral Counting
  • Number Choice Problems
  • Ways to Make

Number Sense Activity - How Many Ways to Make