Connecting

Experiences that allow all students to make connections – to see, for example, how knowledge, concepts, and skills from one strand of mathematics are related to those from another – will help them to grasp general mathematical principles. Through making connections, students learn that mathematics is more than a series of isolated skills and concepts and that they can use their learning in one area of mathematics to understand another. Seeing the relationships among procedures and concepts also helps develop mathematical understanding. The more connections students make, the deeper their understanding, and understanding, in turn, helps them to develop their sense of identity. In addition, making connections between the mathematics they learn at school and its applications in their everyday lives not only helps students understand mathematics but also allows them to understand how useful and relevant it is in the world beyond the classroom. These kinds of connections will also contribute to building students’ mathematical identities.

(Ontario Elementary Math Curriculum, 2020)

Instructional Strategies

  • Activate prior knowledge when introducing a new concept in order to make a smooth connection between previous learning and new concepts.

  • Introduce skills in context to make connections between particular manipulations and problems that require them.

  • Make explicit links between mathematical concepts and skills and those in other disciplines.

  • Allow students to explore their own procedures and algorithms, monitoring these for correctness.

  • Integrate strands, explicitly demonstrating and reinforcing connections.

  • Use visuals to connect procedures and concepts.

  • Make explicit connections between mathematics and everyday student experiences.

  • Be open and receptive to connections identified by students and recognize when a student makes a significant mathematical connection.

Prompting Questions

  • What other math have you studied that has some of the same principles, properties, or procedures as this?

  • How do these different representations connect to one another?

  • When could this mathematical concept or procedure be used in daily life?

  • What connection do you see between a problem you did previously and today’s problem?