The Striving to Improve Series targets students who, for whatever reason, are struggling to keep up with their peers. The activities in the books are designed to prevent students from regressing any further at school. The tasks are based on a modified curriculum so that students can work at their own pace and without constant supervision from the teacher.

This book, Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, is focused on the Number and Algebra Strand of the Australian Curriculum for lower ability students and those who need further opportunity to consolidate these core areas in mathematics. Each section of the book provides students with the opportunity to consolidate written and mental methods of calculation, with an emphasis on process and understanding.

The section entitled Skills With Decimals enables students to re-encounter ideas in decimal place value, calculations with decimals, comparing decimal quantities and rounding decimal amounts. The section entitled Fractions, Decimals And Percentages walks students through conversions between fractions, decimals and percentages. Students explore mental and written methods for performing conversion calculations. Attention is also given to real world applications and uses of these different representations, with an emphasis on understanding and using percentages.

These activities are a useful way to scaffold a new unit of Mathematics and will help build confidence for lower ability students to attempt more challenging problems at their year level. The activities are designed to guide student learning with minimal input from the teacher and there is a strong emphasis on process and understanding.The activities can be used for individual students needing further consolidation in a mainstream classroom or as instructional worksheets for a whole class of lower ability students. The activities are tied to Curriculum Links in the Australian Curriculum ranging from grade levels of Year 4 through to Year 7 and are appropriate for students requiring extra support in Years 7, 8 and 9.

Editor: Mirella Trimboli