5 practices in practice, practice #5

Many teachers might find it ok to skip the last step of the 5 practices in practice: Connecting(Smith and Sherin, 2019)

In terms of completing the problem-solving process, connecting allows teachers to help students see that multiple strategies might be used to solve a problem, but there is a connection between those strategies.

Giving students the opportunity to see the relationship between concrete and abstract, allows them to improve their own problem-solving skills.

If we want students to see that they can become more proficient problem solvers, they need to make connections between their strategies and other more efficient strategies.

It will not help if we push students through this process without them being able to see the connections.