Getting Started with Depth and Complexity

Depth and Complexity is the most powerful framework most teachers have never heard of. Here’s what it actually is — and isn’t.

Bloom’s tells you how high to aim. Depth and Complexity tells you where to look. Combine them and things get interesting.

Universal Themes are an easy way to connect lessons, units, and content areas, even going across grade levels, and into students’ personal interests.

Learn to use the Content Imperatives, a set of five additional tools that work with Depth and Complexity.

For too long, I let my students turn in blah Big Ideas. Here’s how I fixed it.

Let’s see a few examples of how Depth and Complexity slides nicely into any graphic organizer.

One topic, four angles. The Frame graphic organizer gives every student a different way in — without you creating four different lessons.

I spent about a decade making some pretty major mistakes in my use of depth and complexity.

Here’s how I got better at using the Think Like An Expert technique.