The mathematical conversations that take place in the classroom are essential to encouraging students to make connections between mathematical topics and to build understanding on those connections. The teacher's role is to help to guide those conversations. The questions we ask are an important tool for us to use to help students see the connections between concepts.

Here are some examples of questions you may want to use with your students:

• How is this problem like what you've done before? How is it different?
• How is this idea related to (fill in the concept)?
• Can you use a different strategy to solve this problem?

There are many other questions you can use to structure classroom discussions and conversations. It is important for teachers to reflect on the use of questions in the classroom and how those questions help students clarify their thinking.

  How connections relates to the other process standards