Here's the most common mistake I've seen in implementing depth and complexity: the "fill in the blanks" worksheet.
Taking A Zoologist Across Disciplines
All I did was ask students to list and explain three “disciplines.” Let’s take it a bit further!
Boy did I make a lot of obvious mistakes when implementing Depth and Complexity. In this series, I'm breaking down worksheets I used and re-writing them to improve my use of Depth and Complexity.
Featured Articles
When Too Much “Depth” Leads To Simplicity
The Problem with Depth and Complexity Handouts
As I’ve been working through bad examples of Depth and Complexity questions, I’ve honed in on a source of my misconceptions: Depth and Complexity introduction handouts. Do a Google search for “depth and complexity charts” and you’ll see a bunch of examples. They are typically PDFs presented as a table. They show each Depth and […]
Other Depth and Complexity Renovations Articles
Going Beyond “Define These Terms In Your Own Words”
Let’s just look at a typical 👄 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, […]
My Unreadable Question About Multiple Perspectives
Yes, I actually gave my students this question: “How could two experts’ 👓 perspectives regarding information from this reading selection differ from one another?” yikes.
Beyond “Describe How This Changed Over Time”
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 […]
Don’t Just List Ethical Issues
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 […]
Improving “What’s The Chapter’s 🏛️ Big Idea?”
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 […]
I just asked, “Do You Notice Any Patterns?”
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 […]
Fixing my “Think Like A Statistician” Frame
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 […]
Language of the Discipline Gone Wrong
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!!
Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea
Big Idea is often the first prompt of Depth and Complexity that I introduce to students. That does not mean, however, that it is basic or less sophisticated than the other prompts.