Card

Strategy Harvest

Allows participants to analyze and compare others’ strategies for solving a problem.

Strategy Harvest

Summary

Each student solves a problem then shares the solution with a partner. After sharing with a few partners, volunteers can then share some of their partners' strategies with the rest of the class.

Procedure

Students divide a page into a table with two columns and as many rows as they end up needing, or a printed Strategy Harvest template can be found online for classroom use.
Pose a problem to students, which they solve and then write into the first box on their paper, titling it "My Strategy."
Students find a partner or are assigned one.
Each pair of students decide which of them will be partner A and who will be partner B.
Partner A explains their procedure for solving the problem while partner B listens intently, asks questions, and provides feedback. At this time, partner B takes notes about their partner A's strategy in the next box on their paper, writing their partner's name at the top of the box.
Repeat step six, swapping the partners' roles.
Steps three through six are repeated with different partners as many times as time allows.
Volunteers share a partner's strategy with the rest of the class.

Keeley, P., & Tobey, C. R. (2011). #51. strategy harvest. Mathematics Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning (pp. 171-173). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. SAGE.