What is CGI? Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a powerful student centered approach for math instruction rooted in contextualized word problems, which are called number stories. CGI pushes students to consider the actions and relationships in a word problem instead of simply looking for key words to foster a deep understanding of what the question is asking. Students are encouraged to show their work by representing their strategy in detail, such as with pictures, equations, and labeling.W