If you are new to DEPTH and COMPLEXITY, THIS LINK IS A GREAT PLACE TO START, and HERE is another one! JTaylor Education has also launched The Center for Depth and Complexity which elaborates on the entire framework and its history and offers training and useful resources.
I also highly recommend the book Gifted Guild’s Guide to Depth and Complexity (affiliate link) by Ian Byrd and Lisa Van Gemert. Both offer fabulous resources, lessons, and ideas for gifted students on their websites (see Recommended Websites). If you want to quickly get a grasp on these thinking tools and how to use them with your students, Lisa Van Gemert also has shared a 37-page e-book, a Depth and Complexity Quick Guide, in her TPT store.
To guide my students in choosing topics of study for independent research, I created a slide show with examples to show how the tools could be used to develop deeper questions and narrow their research. This overview served as a great review of the elements from year to year, and I found it to be helpful to me as I planned units and lessons. You can view and make your own copy of the presentation HERE.
For primary teachers (K-2nd), Joelle Trayers has freely shared her expertise in using depth and complexity thinking tools with her younger students in the videos below. She explains how she challenges her students to THINK as they respond to literature, answer questions, and use the tools in all kinds of activities and projects. Samples of student work make it clear how the lessons and discussion differ from what may typically be seen in primary classrooms. If you’d like to learn more about rigor in the lower grades, I highly recommend subscribing to Joelle’s blog, Not Just Child’s Play.
DEPTH AND COMPLEXITY IN PRIMARY GRADES
RIGOR IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
Join us in our FACEBOOK PLN GROUP for an ongoing discussion of how to incorporate the tools of Depth and Complexity in differentiation as well as other teaching and planning tips and strategies for use with intellectually advanced students. This group focuses on meaningful conversations and book studies, so it is not meant to replace other groups recommended at the bottom of the ABOUT page.