Depth and Complexity
This framework for differentiation will give your students practical ways to think more deeply about a topic.
Depth and Complexity Icons: The Copyright Question
Are you allowed to use Depth and Complexity? Who owns the copyright? Do you need permission?
Don’t just list examples of writing techniques. Let’s improve Shakespeare!
I stopped and started with “What 👄 special writing techniques does the author use? List examples.”
Taking A Zoologist Across Disciplines
All I did was ask students to list and explain three “disciplines.” Let’s take it a bit further!
My class listed two Unanswered Questions. Now what?
It seems obvious, but if someone tells me what they’re wondering about, I shouldn’t move on to another topic!
Going Beyond “Define These Terms In Your Own Words”
“Define these terms in your own words” may contain depth and complexity… but it’s neither deep nor complex!
Multiple Perspectives Gone Mad!!
Yes, I actually gave my students this question: “How could two experts’ 👓 perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?” yikes.
Beyond “Describe How This Changed Over Time”
I want to go beyond just listing how a character changed. Let’s get students thinking about that change!
A Depth and Complexity ELA Worksheet with Problems
Here’s a Depth and Complexity worksheet I used to use with my students: I look at it now and shudder. I was making so many mistakes here. Let’s just zoom out and imagine that I asked the same questions at a book club with fellow adults. Me: What is this story’s main theme? Him: Oh, […]
Don’t Just List ⚖️ Ethical Issues
Let’s improve this “make a list” question to incorporate high level thinking.
Improving “What’s The Chapter’s 🏛️ Big Idea?”
Let’s improve this bland Depth and Complexity question by getting really specific.
I just asked, “Do You Notice Any Patterns?”
Here’s another question from a worksheet I used to use: Do you notice any 🌀 patterns in this book? And then the next question moved on to another topic. Do you notice any 🌀 patterns in this book? Were there any ⚖️ ethical issues? What was the 🏛️ big idea? I was leaving so much […]
Fixing my “Think Like A Statistician” Frame
I used a Depth and Complexity Frame like this with my math students. Let’s look at how we could improve this. Some problems: It asks four unrelated questions. I want to build a sequence of questions that climbs Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most of the questions are naturally answered with “yes” or “no” or a list. Questions […]
Depth and Complexity: The Icons, the Framework, and How to Actually Use Them
My biggest problem when implementing Depth and Complexity? I used them in a shallow and simple way!
Details Should Lead To A Big Idea
Here are two questions I’d ask students about a story What are three important 🌼 details about the main character? What is the story’s 🏛️ moral? Now, details naturally lead to big ideas. But in this case, I switched topics from “main character” to “big idea, ” which broke the natural movement. If I ask […]
Perspectives on Friendship in Charlotte’s Web
Asking students to “explain the importance” wasn’t as high-level as I thought.
Language of the Discipline Gone Wrong
A teacher sent this one in. They had a ring of pre-written Depth and Complexity questions. They suspected something was wrong. They were right!!
Picture Books and Stories for Introducing Depth and Complexity
Three picture books that I’ve used (or would use) to introduce Depth and Complexity to students of any age.
Introducing Ourselves With Depth and Complexity and Frames
A go-to activity to introduce the prompts of depth and complexity to students while they also introduce themselves to their new classmates.
The Problem with Depth and Complexity Handouts
These common Depth and Complexity handouts are packed with questions that don’t even make sense!
Pop Quiz! Rock Cycle Depth and Complexity
Here are a set of questions someone sent in. What do you think?
Universal Themes in Math? With Fractions!?
What if we used a universal theme to guide our study of fractions? These very big ideas get students thinking about fractions in a new way.
Combining Depth and Complexity Prompts into a Generalization
Let’s start with a puzzlement, ask kids to generate an abstract statement, and then find evidence that their statement works across several different areas.
Making Our Own Depth and Complexity Icon Posters (That Emphasize Thinking)
Why I let students make their own depth and complexity posters rather than buying and displaying professional printable posters.
Homeschooling With Depth and Complexity
A brain dump for ideas about using Depth and Complexity while homeschooling.
Thinking Like Equivalent Fractions
Go across disciplines by asking students to write a story about fraction equivalence.
Depth and Complexity Frames: My Big Mistake
Frames, a graphic organizer often used with the Depth and Complexity framework, have one big trap that I fell into for years.
Depth and Complexity: 📚Across Disciplines
The Across Disciplines prompt asks students to think about how this topic intersects with other fields as well as with other topics within the same field.
Depth and Complexity: ⏳Change Over Time
It’s quite easy to “use” Depth and Complexity and yet have low-level thinking at the same time. Here’s why it’s so important to make sure that our use of Depth and Complexity is truly changing students’ thinking.
How To Use Depth and Complexity Digitally
While the official depth and complexity icons look great, they lead to all kinds of problems in the digital world and also take ownership away from students. Emoji are an elegant solution to both problems.
Depth and Complexity: ❓Unanswered Questions
By far, ❓Unanswered Questions was the prompt that I under-utilized with my own class. Now I see it in a whole new light, and boy is there immense power in prompting students to note and explore truly unanswered questions.
Depth and Complexity: 👄Language of the Discipline
Language of the Discipline is more than just slapping an icon next to an existing spelling list. It’s about digging into the words, phrases, symbols, and acronyms that an expert uses to discuss their field efficiently.
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics and 👓 Multiple Perspectives
In this section, we introduce two more prompts of depth and complexity: ⚖️ ethics and 👓 multiple perspectives.
Depth and Complexity: 🌀Patterns and 🚦Rules
In this section, we’ll learn about two more prompts of Depth and Complexity that pair beautifully: Rules and Patterns. Because they share some similarities, I like to introduce them together and lean heavily on what makes Rules and Patterns different.
Depth and Complexity: 🏛️Big Idea and 🌻Details
When introducing the prompts of Depth and Complexity, I like to begin with Big Idea and Details. Here are some ways you could get started with these two thinking tools.
Depth and Complexity: Ethics… In Math!?
The Ethics prompt of depth and complexity fits so easily into the humanities… but what about ethics in math?!
Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea
Big Idea is often the first prompt of Depth and Complexity that I introduce to students. That does not mean, however, that it is basic or less sophisticated than the other prompts.
My Worst Depth and Complexity Worksheet
Here’s the most common mistake I’ve seen in implementing Depth and Complexity. And I made it too!
The Least Popular Depth and Complexity Prompt
Last month, I asked which prompt of Depth and Complexity you’d get rid of. The results were pretty unanimous…
Building Sequences of Questions with Depth and Complexity
Understanding how to move students from abstract to specific and back again is a key to differentiating for the gifted. Reading through a pal’s dissertation gave me a new way of applying this to Depth and Complexity…
Depth, Complexity, and Graphic Organizers
Layer the prompts of Depth and Complexity onto any graphic organizer to increase the level of thinking required of your students.
What is up with those “New” Depth and Complexity Icons!?
I love the prompts of depth and complexity and the content imperatives. But some teachers are being asked to use eight new prompts that just aren’t as good as the classics.
Depth and Complexity vs Bloom’s Taxonomy: You Need Both
You can use the prompts of depth and complexity yet still ask very shallow questions. Here’s how to avoid this common pitfall…
Conflict and Quadrilaterals
Rather than merely asking “what patterns are there in these quadrilaterals” we’ll set up an exploration of conflict and quadrilaterals.
Multiple Perspectives: Right And Wrong At The Same Time?
It’s essential to teach our students to think flexibly and consider multiple points of view. Flexible thinking leads to product innovation, diplomacy between nations, and advances in science. School, however, often encourages students to settle into a “one right answer” mindset.
3 Examples to Introduce ⏳ Change Over Time
Here are three visual resources to discuss change over time, compare and contrast, and multiple persepctives: beauty tips from 1889, company logos over time, and 1950s 7up ads featuring babies.
Think Like A Philosopher
Up near the top of Bloom’s taxonomy is “evaluating.” A great use of this level of thinking is to evaluate a character’s ethical choice. But we can go deeper! Let’s ask students to evaluate characters’ actions based on another character’s point of view. To add another layer, we’ll teach kids about philosophers and use their points of view as well.
Think Like An Engineer: Egg Drop
At our school, 6th graders participate in an annual egg drop. To increase the rigor, I looked for unique scientific roles and came up with three: designing a parachute to slow the egg’s descent, testing materials to pack inside the structure, and developing the structure itself. Each of these roles will be developed into a scientific discipline.
Think Like A Disciplinarian: The Common Problems
Think Like A Disciplinarian is a method for teaching students to approach concepts from an expert’s point of view. You’ll expose you class to new modes of thinking, teach subject–specific language, and develop questions that delve deeper into problems. As a bonus, students will learn about potential careers.
Think Like An Anthropologist to Make Inferences
Like all HM comprehension skills, “Making Inferences” appears yearly beginning in kindergarten, so I know my 6th graders have practiced, and may well have mastered, the skill. To differentiate, I turned to the model of “Thinking Like a Disciplinarian.”
Content Imperatives And Conflict
Conflict is an essential tool for analyzing literature, understanding history, and improving as a writer. Each year, my 6th graders discuss the types of conflict commonly found in stories and analyze writing using the content imperatives.
A Deep, Complex Extension Menu For Character Analysis
A reusable extension menu gives gifted students choice while simplifying directions and reducing teacher workload. These eight options for character analysis incorporate depth, complexity, content imperatives, and interesting uses of technology.
Think Like A Psychologist
Looking to help your students go deeper into any content area? One technique is to teach them to “Think Like A Disciplinarian.” This idea, part of the Depth and Complexity Framework, teaches students to analyze ideas from the point of view of a specific profession or discipline.
The Content Imperatives: Going further with Depth and Complexity
The Content Imperatives are five more prompts that work in conjunction with Depth and Complexity to take your students even deeper into their content.