On tests, what do Critical Thinking (CT), Communication (CM), and Curricular Literacy (CL) mean?
As we assess students’ knowledge of the 8th grade standards, we want them to be able to demonstrate their skills in various contexts. In our class, we emphasize and regularly practice critical thinking skills, problem solving, and communication. When we put together tests, we want to be sure to include opportunities to solve problems in different contexts. Thus, we categorize the test questions and then check to see that there is a good balance of different types of questions. Our categories and their definitions are as follows:
Critical Thinking: Students are presented with a new scenario and they must use their critical thinking skills to figure out what concepts/skills are necessary to solve the problem.
Communication: Students are being asked to prove, justify, explain, and support their mathematical ideas.
Curricular Literacy: These types of questions are the most straight forward. Students are being explicitly asked to demonstrate a skill that has been covered in class. This is in contrast to a Critical Thinking question where students need to figure out what needs to be done to solve the problem.
We often get asked by both students and parents how to should study for these categories. Our answer is that these categories are not meant to be studied for, per se. When there is a test question that a student does not do well on, instead of looking at the category of the question, students should see what Essential Standard was covered in the problem and then get extra review/practice on that Standard. The goal is for students to be able to discern what a test question is asking and then identify the appropriate skill or concept to apply to the problem. For more Standards review and practice, students can utilize our class Power Up! Zone. Students can figure out the specific skills that need to be worked on by consulting their personalized Mastery Tracker.
For more problem solving practice, the InsideMathematics.org website offers problems that give students a chance to exercise their critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. Their "Problem of the Month" packets are organized by different 8th grade topics.