Depth and Complexity

Videos and tasks related to the Depth and Complexity Framework.

Printable List

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn’t already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
Students will introduce themselves by showing how they’ve changed over time.
Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two
Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two
Once students know the prompts of Depth and Complexity, let’s take them much higher up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Universal Themes

Order and Chaos Hide Inside Each Other
Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative
Chaos Can Be Positive or Negative
Sometimes we want order, but sometimes we need chaos!
Introducing Order and Chaos
Introducing Order and Chaos
Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.
Power and Traditions
Power and Traditions
We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.
Power in Autumn
Power in Autumn
Autumn was once powerful because of the harvest. What gives Fall its power now?
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Introducing Depth and Complexity

Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea
Depth and Complexity: 🏛️ Big Idea
Let’s get students thinking big and focusing on more abstract ideas.
Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details
Depth and Complexity: 🌻 Details
Get kids focusing on the small, but essential, details of a topic.
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!
Depth and Complexity: 👓 Multiple Perspectives
Depth and Complexity: 👓 Multiple Perspectives
In this video, we introduce the 👓 Multiple Perspectives prompt of Depth and Complexity.
Depth and Complexity: Patterns
Depth and Complexity: Patterns
Can your students spot anything that repeats? Or that has stopped repeating?
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Content Imperatives

Content Imperatives: Paradox
Content Imperatives: Paradox
How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Ask students to consider how a specific factor is affecting (or ⏬ Contributing) to a topic.
Content Imperatives: Origin
Content Imperatives: Origin
Take students back to the beginning by using the Content Imperative ⏺️ Origin.

Think Like A Disciplinarian

Think Like An Author: Hemingway vs Dickens
Think Like An Author: Hemingway vs Dickens
What if your students rewrote Dickens in the style of Hemingway and vice versa?
Think Like A Historian
Think Like A Historian
Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!
Think Like A Philosopher
Think Like A Philosopher
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
Think Like An Economist
Think Like An Economist
How would an economist read Goldilocks? How would they see a rainforest? How would they study the American Revolution?