Complete list of row games available on this site.

I first encountered row games on Kate Nowak’s blog. She later posted row games galore, where she collected even more of them from other sources in a box.com folder. Kate describes them as follows:

Make a worksheet of problems organized in two columns. Column A and column B. The tricky part is the pair of problems in each row has to have the same answer. Obviously some topics are more suited to this than others. (Solving linear systems, easy. SOHCAHTOA, easy. Graphing inequalities, hard.)

Pair up the kids. Decide who is A and who is B. Tell the kids to only do the problems in their column. When done, compare answers to each question number with their partner. And if they don’t get the same answer, work together to find the error. That last step is where the magic happens. I know how well I taught the topic by how busy I am while they are row gaming it up. (Sipping coffee: go, me. Running around like lettuce with its head cut off: self-recrimination time.)

This activity is much better than traditional worksheets and homework assignments for a number of reasons.

• Kids actually do it because they are accountable to each other.
• It’s great formative assessment. Notice where Kate mentions the data she gathers above.
• It can be differentiated by making one column slightly easier, and making sure your strugglers get that one.