Reasoning is an integral part of doing mathematics. Students should enter the middle grades with the view that mathematics involves examining patterns and noting regularities, making conjectures about possible generalizations, and evaluating the conjectures. In grades 6–8 students should sharpen and extend their reasoning skills by deepening their evaluations of their assertions and conjectures and using inductive and deductive reasoning to formulate mathematical arguments. They should expand the audience for their mathematical arguments beyond their teacher and their classmates. They need to develop compelling arguments with enough evidence to convince someone who is not part of their own learning community.