Depth and Complexity Frames: My Big Mistake

Frames are a graphic organizer that are used with the Depth and Complexity promps. A Frame is very much like a picture frame. Your content goes in the middle. In each of the four sides, you place a question about the content.

My problem was that my Frame worksheets looked like this:

A bad depth and complexity worksheet

I Just Plopped In Four Icons

The four sections of my Frame included just a different icon from Depth and Complexity. I didn’t actually write a question to prompt my students! A mentor gently pointed out my mistake, asking: Which do you think will generate a more thoughtful response?

  1. 👄
  2. Which word do you think is more essential to the US Constitution: 👄 justice or 👄 liberty?

Gee. I guess the second one is a teensy bit better 🫢

Always Write Out A Question

It seems ridiculous when you think about it, right? What was I even asking for in #1? I honestly don’t know. A list of vocabulary words? But that’s neither deep nor complex! (This is why we have to actually answer our own questions, which I call testing my soup.)

Now don’t feel bad if your frames look like this. Do a search for “depth and complexity frames” and you’ll see how common it is to just plop an icon down without writing out a question.

If I want students to think deeply, I have to prompt them with complete sentences! And I need to embed a high level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

depth and complexity frames good and bad

Here are those questions in plain text (and don’t the emoji icons make it easy to work with Depth and Complexity!?):

  • Which word do you think is more essential to the US Constitution: 👄 justice or 👄 liberty?
  • Summarize the 🏛️ biggest difference between the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation.
  • What would be the most surprising ⏳ change in the Constitution from 👓 Jefferson’s perspective?
  • What would be the most surprising ⏳ change in the Constitution from 👓 Hamilton’s perspective?

So, yes, Frames are a great tool to look at content in several different ways, but always come back to that core question: is this making students think or just remember? A well-crafted question will slow students down and get them to think.

Hey! If you subscribe to Byrdseed.TV, I’ve got a lesson for introducing students using Frames and Depth and Complexity that will push your class to think more deeply about themselves.