Key communication skills, representing listening, speaking, writing and reading, should be viewed as integral parts of mathematics curriculum. Students should be encouraged to explain their thinking orally and in writing with diagrams and manipulatives. Communication helps children clarify their thinking and sharpen their understanding. Mathematics as reasoning gives students the power to do mathematics and to gain autonomy. The classroom climate should promote critical thinking, children's and teacher's questions, reactions to each other's statements and elaboration upon them.
Students use models, known facts, properties and relationships to explain their thinking.
Students, by justifying their answers and solution processes, demonstrate that math is logical. Mathematical Connections shows the interrelationships of math topics, the relevance of math in other curriculum and its use in real world experiences. The following syllabus was developed through examination of the 1980 NYS Math Syllabus K-6 and the NCTM standards. As previously discussed, standards 1-4 define the context and processes of math instruction. Standards 5-13 is the framework for the syllabus.