This metacognitive strategy helps students use self-regulation while solving math word problems. Here, students focus on what the question is asking and select a pre-taught strategy to implement. While working through the problem the students are monitoring and analyzing their problem-solving approach to determine whether or not it makes sense. The importance of this strategy is to stop and reconsider the strategy if it is not working.

Students with learning disabilities sometimes lack the awareness and executive functioning skills to determine whether the approach they selected is effective or not. In addition, though an answer may be completely unrealistic, students may not adjust their thinking and select a different strategy.

To promote generalization, Plan, Monitor, Modify can be used with games, sports, and various subject areas. For example, when playing basketball, if a play is called and the opposing team decides to change their defensive positions, the original play may no longer work. Instead of following through with the plan, a different play can be called and changes can be made as necessary. Apart from sports, in regard to writing, if students were instructed to write a narrative piece and a Venn-diagram was being used to organize the students’ thoughts and ideas, this may not be the most effective approach. For this, it is important for students to monitor their performance and change their approach to planning.