This book should prove to be an invaluable teaching aid for teachers, coaches and tutorial centers, because it thoroughly summarises the 10 major topics which are the basis of the Australian Curriculum.
It will be very beneficial to parents, because it will provide them with a very structured and clear idea of the core syllabus, and what their children should know by the end of Grade 4. If their child has a particular problem (say on adding fractions) it is very easy to find the page and explanations relating to that idea – and hence help their child.
Most important of all, it will prove to be an excellent reference for students of all ability groups. The user friendly format and layout makes it very much faster for a pupil to thoroughly master one major topic in a relatively short period of time, because it is so easy to see how each idea is linked to the previous one. It has all the rules and corresponding examples clearly set out topic by topic, page by page. In addition it teaches the pupils to read explanations, as well as to look back and research similar problems. And of course the graded exercises at the end of each topic chapter will help students of all abilities to practise and apply their knowledge. It is so easy for students to work through the book by themselves with the minimum of supervision and help.
This advanced edition of Understanding Maths Year 4 provides graded exercises that will test student of most ability groups, and in many of the chapters, will extend students to concepts which are usually covered in Year 5.
The questions are graded into levels of difficulty:
- Easier questions: These Level 1 (and sometimes Level 2) questions are intended to build confidence and follow the format of the examples.
- Average questions: Level 2 & 3 questions are of average difficulty level, and give all students (weak, average & gifted) a good opportunity to practice and consolidate the ideas and rules given throughout most of the chapter. All students should try to complete and understand questions in the first three levels.
- Harder questions: These questions are more difficult as they involve larger numbers, and some of the more difficult ideas in the related topic. Reference pages numbers and not included so that students learn to search through the chapter for the relevant information.
- Problem solving: This more difficult level has been included to challenge those students who are more gifted at Maths. Usually the questions are more sentence and problem oriented, and therefore they involve more reading and comprehension skills. It is unlikely that any of the questions in this level can be done mentally, because several different ideas, rules or steps are usually required.
