CueThink App

I first heard about the CueThink app at the EdTech Summit San Diego. I used it for the 1st time this week. I created a very simple question to start and walked my students through the use of the app during a center rotation. Once everyone was comfortable with the app I assigned them a new question that was more appropriate for our current learning.

What I found helpful about CueThink is the very clear understand-plan-solve-review steps. Then within each of the 4 steps there are specific breakdowns to solving the math problem. For example, students need to write what they know from the problem, what they need to find out, and what they estimate an answer would be.

These are skills we have talked about all year but have been difficult to get every student to include in their math problem solving. Most students want to jump in and find the answer. The boxes and 4 steps of CueThink make it more "mandatory" for students to slow down and think first.

I have modified the language a bit my for students. For example, on the understand page I tell the students to write what the problem tells them, what they need to find out, and their estimate.

After each student completed and submitted their assignment I put them in groups of 3, trying to put students who used different strategies in a group together. The students share their solutions with each other (in the app) and then discussed what they noticed about how their peers solved. The discourse during this part of the less was fantastic, I was so impressed!