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Moving Between Depth and Complexity Prompts

Recently, I’ve started reading through my friends’ dissertations (much to their horror, I’m sure). I’m learning so much and am writing up little pieces that interest me.

In this episode, I’m looking at my pal Joanna’s work. She interviewed a variety of professionals and asked them how they actually use the prompts of depth and complexity in their jobs. Super interesting!

Specific vs General

It’s a great read, but the part I want to highlight is this really cool idea I’d never seen before, ranking the prompts of depth from specific to general:

I love this thinking (note my excited note-taking and highlighting)! It supports a layer of the depth and complexity framework that novices often miss: there is a natural movement from prompt to prompt. The highly specific prompts can move towards the more general prompts. And those abstract prompts can also move students thinking towards the more specific.

Introduce Depth and Complexity with Byrdseed.TV!

Byrdseed.TV features over a dozen videos to introduce depth and complexity, content imperatives, and frames to your students.

Browse the Depth and Complexity Video Resources.

Don’t Stop With Details

If you ask students to “identify the details” and then stop, you’re missing a lot of power. Details naturally:

  • become patterns, which are repeating details.
  • support big ideas, which emerge from details.
  • reveal trends, sudden changes in details.

Rather than just asking students to “find the most important details of George Washington’s life,” build on it by asking students to then think about the patterns those details reveal. Or what those details reveal about the big idea of his life.

We might investigate the most important details of the various planets, and then ask students to pull out rules about the planets, based on those details. Or ask what students what patterns they see repeating, and when those patterns break.

Movement Back and Forth

One of my favorite depth moves is to ask students to find the patterns in a situation, and then ask how those patterns have (or might) lead to new rules.

But you can also reverse this move: asking students to first look for rules, and then think about how those rules might (or did) create new patterns.

Likewise, ethical issues might lead to different perspectives. But multiple perspectives can lead to new ethical issues.

So, as you’re considering which prompts of depth and complexity to incorporate in a task, try to build a sequence. Think about how the prompts can build on each other to take students’ thinking to a deeper level.

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More about Depth and Complexity Icons
  1. Four Ways to Differentiate Objectives
  2. The Differentiator!
  3. Introducing Depth and Complexity
  4. Differentiate Lessons With The Content Imperatives
  5. Go Deeper! Get More Complex!
  6. A Deep, Complex Extension Menu For Character Analysis
  7. Reflecting With Depth and Complexity
  8. Content Imperatives And Conflict
  9. Depth or Complexity Alone Isn’t Deep Enough
  10. Depth and Complexity: Iconic Statements
  11. Unlock The Real Power of Content Imperatives
  12. My Thoughts on the “New” Depth and Complexity Icons
  13. Depth, Complexity, and Graphic Organizers
  14. Moving Between Depth and Complexity Prompts
  15. Graphic Organizers Aren’t The End
  16. The Least Popular Depth and Complexity Prompt
  17. When Too Much Depth Leads To Simplicity
  18. Depth and Complexity: Misconceptions About The Big Idea
  19. Ethics In Math
  20. How To Introduce Depth and Complexity
  21. Depth and Complexity: Big Idea and Details
  22. Depth and Complexity: Patterns and Rules
  23. Depth and Complexity: Ethics and Multiple Perspectives
More about Dissertation Tidbits
  1. Moving Between Depth and Complexity Prompts
  2. Narcissistic Teaching (and how to change it)
  3. Changing Educators’ Mindsets

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Please contact me with questions or comments at: ian@byrdseed.com

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