This framework for differentiation will give your students practical ways to think more deeply about a topic.
The dimensions of depth and complexity are a great first step towards a classroom differentiated for gifted learners. Learn the basics of these thinking tools and begin incorporating them into your lessons tomorrow!
While the official depth and complexity icons look great, they lead to all kinds of problems in the digital world and also take ownership away from students. Emoji are an elegant solution to both problems.
You can use the prompts of depth and complexity yet still ask very shallow questions. Here's how to avoid this common pitfall…
All I did was ask students to list and explain three “disciplines.” Let’s take it a bit further!
Let’s just look at a typical đź‘„ Language of the Discipline question on my old Depth and Complexity worksheets. Define these terms in your own words: Union, Confederacy, abolition, secession, emancipation, and blockade. So I was just stopping at “define the words.” That’s a BOB task (Bottom of Blooms). It’s an okay place to start, […]
Yes, I actually gave my students this question: “How could two experts’ đź‘“ perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?” yikes.
Here’s a task that I dug off of an old laptop: Describe a character or situation that ⏳ changed over time. Give examples from the story to prove it. Yeah. There’s a lot of work to be done here! Edit for Clarity First, the question is just poorly written. It’s a rough draft. When I […]
Here’s a Depth and Complexity worksheet I used to use with my students: I look at it now and shudder. I was making so many mistakes here. Let’s just zoom out and imagine that I asked the same questions at a book club with fellow adults. Me: What is this story’s main theme? Him: Oh, […]
Here’s an example of a question I asked my students: ⚖️ What moral or ethical issues are raised in this book? What controversies exist? Now, the first problem is that this question is way too wordy. I often gave my class rough drafts of questions. Nowadays, I want to make sure to proofread, revise, and […]
Here’s a Depth and Complexity question I found on an old worksheet: What title would you give this chapter? Explain why your title fits the chapter’s 🏛️ Big Idea. Sure, I’m using Depth and Complexity. But how am I asking students to think? Bloom’s Taxonomy is much more important than Depth and Complexity. (And it’s not […]
Here’s another question from a worksheet I used to use: Do you notice any 🌀 patterns in this book? And then the next question moved on to another topic. Do you notice any 🌀 patterns in this book? Were there any ⚖️ ethical issues? What was the 🏛️ big idea? I was leaving so much […]
I used a Depth and Complexity Frame like this with my math students. Let’s look at how we could improve this. Some problems: It asks four unrelated questions. I want to build a sequence of questions that climbs Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most of the questions are naturally answered with “yes” or “no” or a list. Questions […]
A teacher sent this one in. They had a ring of pre-written Depth and Complexity questions. They suspected something was wrong. They were right!!