Instructional Strategies in Math: The Math Wars Method®

You may or may not be aware of the “Math Wars” in mathematics education which refers to the polarization of traditional math instruction and the “new” inquiry based instruction. However, my instructional routine, Math Wars Method®, was named solely because of my love of Star Wars and wanting to show my students a lightsaber battle clip in class - maybe I need to begin referring to it as Math Star Wars. I believe using this name and some of the ways I’ve described the Math Wars game in my book, has contributed to more than a few people misunderstanding what I believe about math education. So as I’ve learned more, I’m trying to do better. I’d like an opportunity to more accurately describe the Math Wars Method®.

The Math Wars Method®, was named solely because of my love of the Star Wars movies

In this post I’ll be describing my Math Wars Method® which has helped hundreds of teachers of 6-12 math teachers with students who have been historically unsuccessful in math to increase daily student engagement by 46% and increase course pass rates by 22%. 

Why is it named Math Wars Method®?

I developed the instructional routine in my first and second year of teaching high school math intervention and Algebra 1 in South Central Los Angeles and named it “Math Wars” because of my love of Star Wars and wanting to show my students a lightsaber battle clip in class.

But you don’t have to call it that! I’ve gotten emails saying “I don’t want to call it that because I teach refugees and the word war is very triggering to them.” No problem. Call it what you want! It’s just a nod to the fun gamified competition that it brings into a math class. 

I’ve thought about renaming it because I don’t like being misunderstood (people thinking I named it that to fuel “the math wars”), but it doesn’t feel authentic to me to rename it. This is what I called it in my classroom and being authentic to my classroom experience is so important to me.

The Math Wars Method® And The Math Instructional Strategies Used In The Math Wars Game

First you have to build a positive community in your classroom where it is totally ok to make public math mistakes. You cannot do the Math Wars game without a positive classroom community. I share my favorite ways to do this in chapter 3 and 4 of my book.

Second, the Math Wars Method® is not the ONLY strategy in your classroom. It’s one instructional strategy in math that can be used WHEN the teacher feels it’s the right strategy. I like to say that if your plan for the day was “lecture then worksheet” you should sub in the Math Wars game. However if your plan was rich math task or using manipulatives to build conceptual understanding, do not sub that out for Math Star Wars.

In my book, you’ll see that use certain words to describe the Math Wars Method®. However, since the publishing of my book I’ve learned how polarizing some of the ways I describe the method can be perceived. So as I’ve learned more, I’m trying to do better. Here is an updated, more accurate way of describing the method. There are two major research backed math instructional strategies that go into the method: Formative assessment and systematic instruction.

Formative Assessment

In his book, Embedded Formative Assessment, Dylan Wiliam defines formative assessment as, “Encompassing all those activities undertaken by teachers, and/or by their students, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.” We often think about formative assessment as the first part, a traditional assessment that provides feedback, but we miss the last part. If we are not taking in the feedback and then modifying our teaching based on the results, then we are not doing true formative assessment. I believe the best way to do this in class, in the moment, is with a randomized formative assessment system. You can read more about randomized formative assessment on this blog post.

Systematic instruction

In 2021 the Institute of Education Sciences released their updated guide of, Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades. The number one recommendation in the updated 2021 document (there was a prior version in 2016) states the most impactful evidence-based practice is, “Systematic Instruction: Provide systematic instruction during intervention to develop student understanding of mathematical ideas” and I completely agree with this for secondary math intervention as well. One definition of systematic instruction is, “a systematic method of teaching new material, a method that includes presenting material in small steps, pausing to check for student understanding, and requiring active and successful participation from all students.” That is exactly what the Math Wars Method® is, just in a structured, gamified way. 

Here’s how they fit together in this math game

First, this doesn’t work with a pre-printed workbook. Those just heighten students' math anxiety and students who “get it” just work on the whole thing independently, while those who are struggling, feel left behind. You should start with a very basic graphic organizer where students fill in the blanks or - my favorite - a piece of blank paper folded into 8 boxes. Each blank box represents an area where students will write and solve a problem or write a definition when needed.

Next, you have to chunk your material systematically. For whatever you’re teaching that day you want to systematically lay out example problems in order from least difficult to most difficult. These will now be your chunks of content. Chunk 1 is most simple, chunk 2 is a little harder, chunk 3 a little harder, etc. There is never a set amount of chunks in a lesson, that depends on the content - one lesson might have 4 chunks and one lesson might only have 2. Then you want to create 3-4 example problems for each chunk. 

Now here’s the Math Star Wars game structure:

Chunk 1 Problem 1: Teacher thinks out loud

Display this one problem to your students. You’ll solve this one problem start to finish, thinking out loud for every single step and writing notes as you go. Count on your fingers, glance over at the multiplication table, talk to yourself, you’re modeling how to problem solve and students need to be able to see it and hear it. Instruct your students to take their notes paper and write along with you.

Chunk 1 Problem 2: Randomized formative assessment

Display this one problem to your students. This time grab a class set of index cards or popsicle sticks with students' names and ask as many questions as possible using only the randomized system (cards or sticks) to get answers. Instruct your students to take notes in the next box on their paper. For example, if the question is 2x - 5 = -8 here are the questions you might ask:

• Student 1: What do I do first, Connie?

• Student 2: Great, add 5 to both sides. What do I get when I add 5 to both sides, Juan?

• Student 3: 2x = -3, awesome. What do I do next, Mirian?

• Student 4: Divide both sides by 2, yes. What does that give me, Dwight?

• Student 5: -3/2. Do you agree with that, Sophia?

In that one question I’ve heard from five random students, my lesson went at a quick pace, and I have wonderful informal formative assessment data about what my students are understanding and not understanding in the moment, not weeks later when I give a quiz. 

Chunk 1 Problem 3: Collaboration

Display this one problem to your students. Set a timer - that students can see - for an appropriate amount of time that will create urgency, but not stress students out and heighten math anxiety. Tell students to do this problem together with their team, check their answers with each other, and ask each other for help because, “you don’t know who I’m going to call on to answer this one.” Circulate and look at student work while the timer is counting down. What do you notice? Is everyone getting the same answer? Are students all over the place with their answers? That is great formative assessment feedback for you about whether or not your students are understanding the material in the moment! When the timer goes off, use your randomized system (cards or sticks) to get a final answer to the question and write in on the board. 

Yes, I said final answer. So often, I see teachers set a timer for students to work independently, but then just go over the problem from start to finish when the timer goes off. What reason does this give our students to do any work independently? Why would they do any heavy thinking when they know you’re just going to do it for them in two minutes anyway? Instead, create authentic accountability by asking for a final answer and fighting the urge to walk through it again step by step. Once you have a final answer on the board, use the randomized system to call on another student and simply ask, “Do you agree or disagree?” Put all of the ownership on your students. You do not say “yes,” “no,” “good job,” or “not quite.” Put the ownership on your students to agree with their peers or disagree with their peers, allow them to be the holder of the math answers, not just you.

Chunk 1 Problem 4: Collaboration

Does the randomized formative assessment data from problem 3 suggest they need more practice or are they ready to move on to chunk 2? If they need more practice, do one more with the same style as you did the previous one.

Move on to chunk 2 and repeat the process.

Now you’ll move on to the example problem you identified for chunk 2 with 3-4 example problems and do those 3-4 problems in this same structure: Teacher think-aloud, randomized formative assessment, collaborate, collaborate.

The game asked comes into play when you give points based on correct answers and agreeing/disagreeing with those stated answers. If you find yourself with questions about this Math Star Wars or want to know more, I go into much more detail in my book and my digital PD course. 

Who is the Math Star Wars Game for?

I have only ever taught students who have been historically unsuccessful in mathematics. I have taught high school math intervention and algebra 1 and three different title 1 high schools. So my lens is always through intervention and how we help our students who need us the most. I’ve never taught advanced classes or honors classes. If you want to try the Math Wars game there, that’s great, but I made it for students who struggle with 6-12 math.

With that intervention lens, you also need to understand my just in time approach to math intervention to use the method well. Math Star Wars would be helpful for your “staircase content” and then once you get to the top of your staircase and you’re ready for your HQIM (High Quality Instructional Materials) where you should use the strategies, structures, and routines that are suggested.

I get asked all the time if it’s good for K-5 and honestly, I would prefer K-5 teachers use a far more conceptual approach. My go-to suggestion is always how Mona Iehl lays out mathematics for K-5 which you can learn more about in her book or on her website.

How does Math Wars Method® align with NCTMs 8 Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices?

You can read all about NCTMs 8 Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices here, but the following are most aligned with Math Star Wars:

• Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.

• Pose purposeful questions.

• Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.

• Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.

I want to address two additional teaching practices specifically: Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding and implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving. I believe these are SO important. 

Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding

I will be the first to admit that the Math Wars Method® is more focused on procedural fluency. It’s important that teachers see the Math Wars game as one instructional tool they can pull when needed and not the only tool to be used every day. Ideally, a teacher would launch a unit with something more conceptual and then utilize Math Wars when appropriate. For example, this Desmos activity I created about balancing equations before launching into a Math Star Wars lesson on solving equations. Students need to anchor the abstract (just the pure solving of equations) to something representational (visual) or even concrete (physical manipulatives) first. 

Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving

Again, since Math Wars Method® is more focused on procedural fluency, it’s important that teachers use it as just one possible tool of effective instruction. It’s important that teachers launch units or summarize units with tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving. Personally, my students had more confidence to conquer a task, once they had already built some procedural fluency with the Math Wars game. Going back to the equations unit example, launch the unit with the Desmos activity, then do some Math Star Wars to develop procedural fluency, then make sure to give students a rich task around solving equations (probably found in your high quality instructional resource). 

Where does Math Wars Method® fit into the CCSS Mathematics concept of rigor?

CCSS Mathematics defined rigor as a three legged stool. Each leg needs to be present in rigorous mathematics instruction: conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. 

As I stated in the section above, the Math Wars Method® is more focused on procedural fluency. It’s important that teachers see the Math Wars game as one instructional tool they can pull when needed and not the only tool to be used every day. 

A lot of the conversation around effective math teaching strategies is centered around conceptual understanding and application. I hear very few people talking about how we help teachers make procedural fluency more meaningful and impactful yet it is still a part of rigor. I believe Math Star Wars is a helpful tool for making procedural fluency more engaging and effective when used with other strategies that develop more conceptual understanding and provide opportunities for application. 

Wrapping Up

I hope this helps deepen your understanding of the Math Wars Method® and I appreciate an opportunity to evolve. Again, when you learn more, you can do better. That is what I’m trying to do in this blog post and I appreciate every moment you took to read this. Connect with me on Instagram (collaborated.with.juliana) if you have any questions!