Reducing the Cognitive Load of Math Tasks With Strategy Cards

Like many other teachers, I have often felt frustrated when teaching my elementary students math. During guided practice, my students seemed to grasp the content, but when the independent practice came, many were lost. I was constantly feeling burned out and scrambling to provide high-quality instruction to each student. When I started understanding how the brain processes math and utilizing tools to support students’ executive functioning, like strategy cards, I noticed a dramatic improvement.

Understanding and Supporting How the Brain Processes Math

There are three main areas of the brain that students need to use to solve a math problem: the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the temporal lobe. The frontal lobe of the brain is the hub where executive functioning skills live. When students engage in solving a math problem, they need to use their executive functioning skills to sequence steps to manage their working memory and cognitive load.

If the working memory becomes overloaded with too much information or is confused with how to initiate solving, the cognitive demand will be too great, and a student may be unable to start or complete the problem. The parietal lobe controls verbal fact retrieval, allowing a student to recall math facts. It also encompasses a student’s visuospatial skills and attention, which allows them to physically draw or represent the equation. Finally, the temporal lobe of the brain houses a student’s ability to visualize math concepts and understand what a math symbol means.

All three of these areas of the brain need to be activated and work together in order for a student to be successful with independent math work. To help ensure that students are able to successfully shift between their problem-solving ability, thinking, and actions to attack different parts of a problem, I teach students to create strategy cards.

These cards help reduce the cognitive load, enabling students not only to become more successful and independent within their arithmetic work, but also to dive deeper into the conceptual understanding of math concepts.

CREATING AND UTILIZING A STRATEGY CARD

A strategy card is a large index card that breaks down a strategy for solving a specific type of math problem. Essentially, it is a smaller anchor chart that is student created. I guide students to create these cards in every unit. When students are creating their own strategy card, they are actively engaging with the material rather than passively watching you create an anchor chart. This activates metacognitive skills, increasing analytical thought on the strategy being taught and increasing opportunities for students to develop the neural networks needed to approach a specific math problem.

For example, if I am teaching students how to divide using the break-apart strategy, I explicitly teach the strategy and model each step. Next, I have my students take out a large index card and follow along as we go through each step.

During this process, I explain the reasoning behind each step and check for understanding by asking my students questions. After we complete the example problem together, each student has created their own personal strategy card. This then serves as a jumping-off point for their independent practice. I often copy and laminate the cards so that students can use them as a checklist and take them home for reference.

Below is an example of a strategy card for the break-apart strategy within long division.

After we’ve created these strategy cards as a class, students can turn to their independent practice with confidence and a reduced cognitive load: Students no longer have to hold on to the steps in their mind, which weighs down the working memory. Instead, they can focus on applying the strategy and engaging in deeper math thinking.

Using the strategy card allows students to deeply engage and analyze the math skill they are learning. This increases their likelihood of accuracy, as they do not have to overtax their working memory.

I noticed that when my students began using strategy cards, they started gaining more proficiency within the concept faster and more consistently. This in turn led to more productivity in my students’ independent work and my time supporting and differentiating for small groups.

In addition to helping to reduce the cognitive load, strategy cards help my students build their self-awareness and metacognitive skills. When I sit down with an individual student to conference, I have them use their strategy card to help explain the work they’ve done and articulate their thinking. This helps students evaluate how well they applied the strategy and identify where they need more support in a given math process.

I also noticed that students were better able to articulate their needs. When confused, instead of just saying, “I do not know what to do,” students are now more specific and say things like “I know I need to do step 1 and 2, but I am confused by step 3.” This allows me to more effectively support students who need help, as I know exactly where to support them.

A strategy card is like a step stool: It gives students that extra boost and support they need to accomplish the task. As teachers, we know that practicing a concept is essential in order to build mastery. Strategy cards free up space to analyze a problem and recall facts more accurately, as students can focus on applying the strategy instead of trying to remember the steps. With time and practice utilizing the strategy correctly, students may no longer require the visual cue, as the steps will become committed to their memory.