Here’s a Depth and Complexity worksheet I used to use with my students:
I look at it now and shudder. I was making so many mistakes here.
Let’s just zoom out and imagine that I asked the same questions at a book club with fellow adults.
Me: What is this story’s main theme?
Him: Oh, I thought the story was all about resiliency! See, the…
Me: Did you notice any patterns in the story?
Him: ..uh. Yes, the protagonist had to keep…
Me: Do you have any unanswered questions?
Him: (starting to back away)
Me: What changes over time? What doesn’t change? What effect could this story have on the future!?
Him: (full sprint towards the door)
The problem is pretty obvious right? No one would ever ask questions like this. I wasn’t giving my students a chance to say anything interesting because I was immediately yanking them into another direction.
Using Depth and Complexity Isn’t The Goal
My core problem was that I wanted to use LOTS of Depth and Complexity prompts. I thought that jamming 7 or 8 or 9 prompts onto one worksheet was more deep. But the opposite is true. Using just ethics or just big idea would have empowered me to go deeper.
More Depth and Complexity is not a good thing.
In a real conversation, we’d stick with one topic and ask several follow ups. So, when using Depth and Complexity, stick with just one prompt until it is natural to bring in a second. The goal is NOT to use lots of Depth and Complexity. Depth and Complexity is just a tool for asking more specific questions.
Now, there’s way too much to go into with this worksheet, so I’ll just pull out the worst offender and save the rest for other articles.
Written From A Different Point of View
Let’s look at this question:
👓 How would this story be different if it were written from a different point of view?
Now, it’s not the worst question on the worksheet. In fact, it’s probably the best question. But it’s so under-developed. I’d want to ditch the other questions and just build this one out. I’d want to write a nice sequence.
- Pick a 👓 new author for this same story.
- Choose a key moment in the story that this author would change.
- What 🌼 specific changes would the author make?
- How will these changes affect the story’s 🏛️ main idea?
- Now make the changes! Write the new version of this key moment in the style of the 👓 new author.
- Creating an advertisement for this new version, highlighting the changes.
See how this sequence is so much more powerful than the original version I used? Students are gently guided towards an interesting, high-level task. Depth and Complexity is not the main star at all. It serves a purpose, but ultimately I want to be asking good questions – not just cramming Depth and Complexity in.
And, will every student get to every part? Of course not! That’s how differentiation works.