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Byrdseed.TV Example Lessons Depth & Complexity

Cross Curricular

Focus on Thinking, Not the Product

When I was a new teacher, you would have seen some pretty fancy products hanging in my room, but if you stopped to consider how my kids thought about the content... well, often my students just restated facts that I had already told them.
Lunar Survival Skills

Lunar Survival Skills

We're supposed to rank fifteen items according to usefulness if we were stranded on the light-side of the moon. The items range from pistols to powdered milk. Some seem useful, but are actually worthless while others seem unnecessary on earth, but are actually vital when stuck on the moon. However, the structure of the activity as a website is not optimal. Let's improve this and make it an awesome problem–solving exercise for our class.
Introducing Universal Themes and Generalizations

Introducing Universal Themes and Generalizations

Generalizations, big ideas, abstractions, universal themes... they are designed to help our gifted students learn. However, what I didn't realize was that they would help me teach!
Sharpening Questions

Sharpening Questions

With some small changes, we can turn fluffy opinion questions into thought-provoking evaluation questions.

Combining Depth and Complexity Prompts into a Generalization

Let's start with a puzzlement, ask kids to generate an abstract statement, and then find evidence that their statement works across several different areas.
Group Investigation: Lessons Built on Curiosity

Group Investigation: Lessons Built on Curiosity

John Dewey's Group Investigation is a favorite model of instruction of mine. It's simply built on curiosity!
Ask Sequences, Never One-Off Questions

Ask Sequences, Never One-Off Questions

Beware one-off questions. Any question that we prepare should have a natural follow-up question. And those follow-ups should push students up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Going Beyond “Define These Terms In Your Own Words”

"Define these terms in your own words" may contain depth and complexity… but it's neither deep nor complex!
Four Types of Questions You Can Ask

Four Types of Questions You Can Ask

Asking questions is such a basic tool of teaching, yet how many of us have ever been taught to ask good questions? In this opening to a series about questioning, we'll explore how to get students asking each other questions.
What could we do with this Wax Museum event?

What could we do with this Wax Museum event?

How one might revamp a "Wax Museum" project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.
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