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Depth and Complexity Icons

Lessons and activities you can use today that build on the Depth and Complexity Icons! Introduce the icons to your students. But also learn to integrate them into your lessons.

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Printable List

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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Universal Themes

Introducing Universal Theme of Power
Introducing Universal Theme of Power
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Power? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Introducing Universal Theme of Systems
Introducing Universal Theme of Systems
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Systems? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Introducing Universal Theme of Change
Introducing Universal Theme of Change
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Change? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict
Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict
So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.
Chaos Makes Sense (Later)
Chaos Makes Sense (Later)
In the moment, a chaotic event makes no sense. But later, that same event can feel like it was part of a larger story.
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Content Imperatives

Content Imperatives: Origin
Content Imperatives: Origin
Take students back to the beginning by using the Content Imperative ⏺️ Origin.
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Ask students to consider how a specific factor is affecting (or ⏬ Contributing) to a topic.
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: 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!

Depth and Complexity Activities

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.
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.
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 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!
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.

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?