Depth and Complexity

Videos and tasks related to the Depth and Complexity Framework.

Printable List

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Student Introductions With Depth and Frames
Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Upgrade Research Questions With Depth and Complexity
Ever ask students to create research questions? Were their ideas a bit… blah? My own students had a very hard time writing questions they didn’t already know the answer to! This video is how I solved that problem: upgrade research questions with depth and complexity.
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
Student Introductions with Complexity and Frames
Students will introduce themselves by showing how they’ve changed over time.
Ethics In The Young Elementary Classroom
Ethics In The Young Elementary Classroom
Can we get students as young as kindergarten discussing ethical issues? Learn some ideas for integrating these multiple perspective problems throughout your curriculum.
Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two
Student Introductions With Depth, Complexity, and Frames: Level Two
Once students know the prompts of Depth and Complexity, let’s take them much higher up Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Contrasting with Depth and Complexity
Contrasting with Depth and Complexity
Once your students can identify the rules, language, or big ideas of a topic, we’ve got to move them up Bloom’s Taxonomy! Let’s start by contrasting with a related topic.
Making A Change with Depth and Complexity
Making A Change with Depth and Complexity
Take your students further up Bloom’s Taxonomy by asking them to make a change using one of the prompts of depth and complexity and then consider what the effects of that change would be.

Universal Themes

Power and Traditions
Power and Traditions
We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.
Power in Autumn
Power in Autumn
Autumn was once powerful because of the harvest. What gives Fall its power now?
Power and Symbols
Power and Symbols
When does a simple symbol have more power than a word?
Who has more power: the Queen Bee or the Hive?
Who has more power: the Queen Bee or the Hive?
Sometimes power is concentrated in one place. Other times it is spread out.
Indirect Power – Lighthouse vs Magnetism
Indirect Power – Lighthouse vs Magnetism
Students explore the idea of indirect power – which can be both visible (a lighthouse) or invisible (magnetism).
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Introducing Depth and Complexity

Depth and Complexity: 📈 Trends
Depth and Complexity: 📈 Trends
Has something been changing recently? What might be causing that? What are the effects?
Depth and Complexity: 👄 Language of the Discipline
Depth and Complexity: 👄 Language of the Discipline
Imagine a construction worker who doesn’t know the name of a screwdriver or a doctor who can’t remember what to call your neck. It’s pretty hard to communicate well without knowing the 👄 Language of the Discipline!
Depth and Complexity: ❓ Unanswered Questions
Depth and Complexity: ❓ Unanswered Questions
This underutilized tool focuses students on what we don’t yet know and even what we can’t know.
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!
Depth and Complexity: 🚦 Rules
Depth and Complexity: 🚦 Rules
Is there a consequence for not doing something? You may have found a rule!
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Content Imperatives

Content Imperatives: Paradox
Content Imperatives: Paradox
How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Content Imperatives: Convergence
Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Content Imperatives: Parallel
Get students thinking broadly by exploring similarities across multiple topics. Combine with Depth and Complexity for bonus points!
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Content Imperatives: Contribuition
Ask students to consider how a specific factor is affecting (or ⏬ Contributing) to a topic.
Content Imperatives: Origin
Content Imperatives: Origin
Take students back to the beginning by using the Content Imperative ⏺️ Origin.

Think Like A Disciplinarian

Think Like An Author: Hemingway vs Dickens
Think Like An Author: Hemingway vs Dickens
What if your students rewrote Dickens in the style of Hemingway and vice versa?
Think Like A Historian
Think Like A Historian
Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!
Think Like A Philosopher
Think Like A Philosopher
What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?
Think Like An Economist
Think Like An Economist
How would an economist read Goldilocks? How would they see a rainforest? How would they study the American Revolution?