Videos designed for teachers rather than students.
Depth and Complexity is a powerful, but often misunderstood, framework for teaching students to think more like experts.
My early lessons didn't even have objectives, let alone good objectives! Here's how to build four-part, differentiated lesson objectives.
Start with high expectations and scaffold down.
Part 1 of Better Questions
How can we ask questions that make students think rather than just remember?
What separates difficulty from complexity? And why do complex tasks lead to much more natural differentiation?
Part 2 of Better Questions
Research has been surprisingly unclear about whether high-level questions are actually effective. Wait. What? The key is that high-level questions on their own aren't enough. We must create sequences of questions!
Why I don't use the word "Create" when writing objectives.
So many of us say, "I want to challenge my students!" But, that's probably not the best place to start.
Part 4 of Better Questions
How much time do students get to think? How much time do students need to think? How can we bring those into alignment?
After looking at dozens of lessons folks sent in, I came up with three big ideas to address.
Here's how Joelle Trayers gets even her youngest students ready to think in unexpected ways.
Universal Themes are an easy way to connect lessons, units, and content areas, even going across grade levels, and into students' personal interests.
Rather than giving students rules to apply to websites, let them analyze websites to create rules.
Combine higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy with the prompts of Depth and Complexity!
With inductive thinking, students will work from parts to whole, discovering big ideas along the way!
How to go deep into conflict using the Content Imperatives.
Why being good at many things can be a bit of a burden.
Ask students to go beyond "I don't like it" and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.
Here are a bunch of ways to quickly practice creativity with your students for zero dollars.
How can our students be so different? And how can we help them to understand themselves and each other better.
Part 4 of Models of Instruction
Learn to lead a lesson that is built entirely on student curiosity.
Who would win in the Tournament of Most Honorable Presidents or Least Useful Geometric Shapes or Bravest Shakespearean Characters? Create an academic tournament and watch your students' brains sweat!
Part 3 of Better Questions
Math is a particularly tricky subject for asking higher-level questions. Here are a couple of techniques I've used to prompt students to think, not merely calculate.
Part 2 of Models of Instruction
In a Concept Attainment lesson, we give students examples and non-examples of a concept -- without telling them what that concept is!
Learn to use the Content Imperatives, a set of five additional tools that work with Depth and Complexity.
The thinking behind my weekly Puzzlements mailer.
We think of gifted kids as only having academic needs, but - in their own words - they also have many needs of the heart.
Do you know a student who's a little bit… intense?
A delightfully ambiguous framework that is quick to prepare, but can last forever!
What would it be like if students graphed characters from stories? Historic leaders? Elements from the period table? Objects in space?
How knowing your material well easily becomes a curse… and what to do about it!
Just because a task is "creative" doesn't mean students are at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Giving a definition just doesn't cut it! Use the Frayer Model to explain (and assess!) vocabulary.
Part 5 of Better Questions
What would the pie chart look like for these three situations: the teacher asks the students, a student asks the teacher, or a student asks another student a question? I can tell you my pie chart would have been very lopsided.
Know any kids who, despite their brilliant minds, have a bit of a hard time keeping things in order, turning things in on time, or remembering to put their names on their papers?
I spent about a decade making some pretty major mistakes in my use of depth and complexity.
When differentiating, most teachers simply start in the wrong place!
Here's a simple task that will add complexity to any content from any grade level!
In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.
Why buy premade posters when you can show off your students' thinking about Depth and Complexity?
Part 7 of Better Questions
Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.
How can you tell if your students' social-emotional needs are being met on your campus?
Let's see a few examples of how Depth and Complexity slides nicely into any graphic organizer.
Rather than just learning about one structure, let's climb Bloom's and think more deeply.
A high level of thinking also requires the support of thoughtful scaffolding.
Some kids are exposed to a wide range of classic art, music, and films at home and others aren't. Let's even the playing field by quickly integrating classics into our lessons.
Part 1 of Updating Old Questions
I update an old question about conflict and character change in the story Hatchet.
Part 4 of Updating Old Questions
How I'd upgrade a dull "which one is better" question.
Is creating nine, two-sentence tasks really an effective way to differentiate?
Part 3 of Models of Instruction
Want your students to ask better questions? Why not train them to inquire!?
What separates our on-level writers from our advanced writers?
Part 3 of Updating Old Questions
How I'd improve a low-level question about a story's genre.
Here's how you can move from merely "summarizing a text" to a high-level task that culminates in synthesis.
So your students can identify a story's problem and solution. Then what?
A collection of helpful tips about differentiating through pre-assessment.
Part 5 of Updating Old Questions
How I'd break down and rebuild a task about judging a volcano.
How to use a classic to revamp a study of context clues.
Comparing fraction strategies? Let's take it even further!
While "engagement" is fun, it shouldn't be our main goal.
Part 1 of Models of Instruction
As a new teacher, I only knew one model of instruction: Direct Instruction. I was like a chef who only knew how to deep fry!
Part 2 of Updating Old Questions
How I'd update a low-level, overly engaging math question.
Here's how I got better at using the Think Like An Expert technique.
A few quick tips on how to better use graphic organizers to support higher-order thinking.
How to memorize the countries in Africa, the Japanese writing system, or a deck of cards.
Why just "identifying patterns" isn't deep enough.
Student products give an instant glimpse into whether differentiation is happening on your campus.
How do you know, when you're walking through a class, whether the students are receiving appropriate work?
Rather than adding more to your plate, think about what you want to stop doing.
Lisa explains how Log Cabin Living changed her classroom environment. Sort of.
Part 6 of Better Questions
How to improve questions at the "evaluate" level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
For too long, I let my students turn in blah Big Ideas. Here's how I fixed it.
You're implementing Depth and Complexity, but how do you know if you're doing it well? Five things to look for.
Go beyond merely explaining strengths and weaknesses and get students thinking in interesting ways.
A big, impressive product doesn't mean that there was big, impressive thinking.