Integrate Content Areas

The various content areas of mathematics are often interconnected, and a teacher should emphasize these connections within the curriculum and in lessons. A coherent curriculum supports students in integrating various mathematics concepts and seeing how ideas build upon and connect with each other. This makes it possible for students to develop and deepen their understanding and their skills.7

The learning of mathematics also becomes more meaningful for students when it makes sense to them in contexts beyond individual lessons. Mathematics should be connected in three ways: within mathematical concepts, with other disciplines, and to real-world situations. All of these, in different ways, help students to establish a framework of strategies that students can call upon in order to solve new problems and learn new concepts and algorithms.

Teachers should work collaboratively to develop and teach integrated or thematic units that span more than one discipline—not only mathematics and science or computers, but mathematics and language arts, social studies, physical education, or fine arts instruction. The only limit is the time, knowledge, and imagination of the team of teachers.8

For an example of how to integrate content areas, see the lesson plan How Close Is Our Estimate. To enhance students' understanding of multiplication, use the lesson plan Visualizing Multiplication.

William Schmidt, Richard Houang, and Leland Cogan, "A Coherent Curriculum: The Case of Mathematics," American Educator 26, no. 2 (summer 2002): p. 19.
The following articles provide more examples of how to integrate content areas: Deborah A. Moore and Maria C. Schwarz, "Fishy Fun under the Sun, A Week of Geometry Connections," Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School 9, No. 2 (October, 2003), pp. 78-82; and Jennifer Suh et al., "Junior Architects: Designing Your Dream Clubhouse Using Measurement and Geometry," Teaching Children Mathematics 10, no. 3 (November 2002), pp. 170-79.