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:

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.

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.

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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.