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Introduction to Depth and Complexity Icons (Gifted Education)

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Are you interested in visiting this school to learn how they've integrated the Icons into all grade levels and disciplines?

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Nationally recognized as a Blue Ribbon School, Mariners Christian School is a coeducational independent Christian school of over 700 students located in Costa Mesa, California. Established in 1987, the school's mission is "building a firm foundation through Christ-centered education" in the heart and mind of each child.

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A way of helping kids process information. From concrete to abstract.

Scaffolded critical thinking

Developed for GATE students

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Reading Logs - pick an icon to respond

Throughout literature - deeper level thinking, worksheets designed with icons

Comprehension quizzes for read-aloud books. Connect with Quadrants/Anchor Charts.

Choice for analyzing

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A pedagogy to be applied to any subject

Students use the language of the icons

Frames/Graphic organizers

Sandra Kaplan - USC

Q Cards - sentence frames/prompts

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Icons for ALL STUDENTS

Kids can learn the terminology

Challenges us as a teacher to teach to higher levels

Critical thinking

Rigor

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How can we use to annotate?

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How can we apply to all subject areas not just Literature?

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Different methods of using them?

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Do students need to know that we are using the Icons or do we keep them to ourselves to develop curriculum?

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Why are there 11 icons? Are there more?

Difference between Depth and Complexity?

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Rubrics for evaluating responses

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This looks like an easy way to add icons into documents that we make.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/depth-and-complexity-emoj/emnddjheaaomkkbfofepdjlhmdjlhdea?pli=1

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Depth and Complexity Emoji Icon Picker - Chrome Web Store

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An easy way to plop a Depth and Complexity Icon into any website.

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I look forward to taking a lesson from each discipline and analyzing it with my colleagues to measure how we are doing.

Laurie

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I'd love to visit Mariners Christian School and see it in action.

Laurie

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Is it possible to get formal training in Depth and Complexity?

Laurie

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I would like to use one of these icons during a lesson this week.

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I would like some formal training to ensure I have a deeper knowledge of them and am able to use them for all content areas.

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At first, I felt as though these are daunting, but after looking them over, I am doing these, but I didn't know they had a name! :)

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I learned that the icons can be used in many contexts to enhance and deepen students' understanding. They provide a familiar framework for students to keep coming back to.

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I would like to explicitly teach a couple of them to my class the next time we have a critical thinking activity.

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I learned that by using these icons (even if we're giving an icon and name to something we're already doing) can help our students to think about their thinking, make deeper connections, and provide a rich common language across subject areas.

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I will introduce the details, language of the discipline, and patterns icons and add them to our Read Aloud charts.

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Gifted Guild's Guide to Depth and Complexity

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Forwarding the first chapter of this book as an overview of the philosophy and design of the Icons from two teachers who applied this in their own practice.

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Questions to ask Mariners Teachers on 5/21

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Questions to ask Mariners Teachers on 5/21

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What are high quality resources that will best meet student needs?

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What are high quality resources that will best meet student needs?

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So this is a summary of all the icons and question stems for each - from our friends at Mariners Christian!

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1. Using the depth and complexity icons is an easy way to differentiate instruction.

2. Using depth and complexity icons fosters interactive, student-led discussions.

3. It is important to consider the "thinking skills" we are asking of our students while using the depth and complexity icons. Depth and Complexity gives content-based prompts that push thinking about a topic, while Bloom’s Taxonomy guides the cognitive demand placed on students.

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1. The difference between "Rules" and "Patterns" is that when rules break, there's a problem but when patterns break, it's interesting.

2. It's okay to use some elements more than others or some rarely at all.

3. It is best to draw the symbols by hand to encourage students to do the same.

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1. Each icon is a shortcut to expert thinking

2. The importance of pairing Depth and Complexity Icons with High-Level Thinking Skills/Questions

3. Differentiation made easy. Differentiation = Thinking Skill + Content + Resources + Product. You can adjust any of those four pieces to meet students' needs, interests, abilities.

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1. Introducing them well is important and will directly impact the success of students' use of the tools.

2. Introduce new elements with content that is already familiar to them.

3. When students see these symbols, it should lead them to think about how they're supposed to be thinking.

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1. The icons are symbols that are helpful, but our focus needs to always be on raising the thinking level to develop differentiation within our curriculum. We shouldn't lose sight of the purpose behind depth and complexity.

2. It aligns with any standard system across all grade levels.

3. Scope and sequence should be organic without a right or wrong way to introduce them to the students.

4. The significant difference between the depth icons and the complexity icons were the following....

DEPTH ICONS examine topics:

Details, Big Idea, Ethics, Patterns, Rules, Trends, Unanswered Questions, Language of the Discipline

COMPLEXITY ICONS connect concepts:

Change over time, Multiple Perspectives, Across Disciplines

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Kids can draw the icons as annotations and alongside their reading logs.

As teachers, we should use these icons as we annotate our books for Oaks U.

Deeper-level thinking skills move students toward professional or expert knowledge and CONFIDENCE!

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They mentioned that the original icons are not in use anymore. What were they and why?

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I learned the significant difference between the depth icons and the complexity icons were the following....

DEPTH ICONS examine topics:

Details, Big Idea, Ethics, Patterns, Rules, Trends, Unanswered Questions, Language of the Discipline

COMPLEXITY ICONS connect concepts:

Change over time, Multiple Perspectives, Across Disciplines

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1. Depth and complexity icons can definitely help with differentiated instruction.

2. The icons can be paired well with helping students develop/grow higher-order thinking skills.

3. I know this might sound odd, but it gives me hope that we, as a team, can implement these into everything we do, not just in academics.

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1. We don't want to introduce the icons only to use them with low level thinking skills.

2. Depth involves investigating a topic more thoroughly to reveal hidden details and knowledge, while complexity means recognizing and forming connections between multiple ideas.

3. On page 14, the authors recommend not putting up posters of the icons until they are individually introduced. (Should I take my whiteboard magnets down?)

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1. Depth and complexity icons can serve as a common “thinking language” across grade levels and subjects, which helps build consistency and continuity in how students approach learning.

2. Clearly defining how the depth icons are used (examine) vs. the complexity icons (connect).

3. When students see the icons modeled in real conversations and writing, they start to apply them more naturally in their own work.

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1. 🌼Should call them "thinking tools", "prompts", or "elements" instead of "icons" pg. 15

2. 🚦🌀"Differentiation = thinking skill + content + resources + product" pg. 2. I'd like to keep this in mind when I create lessons/activities for kids. Is this a rule or a pattern?

3. 🏛️Page 20 "These symbols are elements of thinking and will...create expectation, convey information, give us a common vocabulary, tell us what to do and not to do, and they may adjust meaning from one thing we study to another."

Not take aways, but unanswered questions❓:

1. What is the difference between "elements" and "framework"? Are the elements the images and the framework the entire construct?

2. Page 4 "The original icons are no longer used." He called the "thinking tools" icons, told us no one is using the icons, then told us where to find the old icons. huh? (Also, I couldn't get the old icons to paste here, so I used the new ones.)

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Drop a picture of any student work that you think shows a good representation of engagement with an icon, any icon. Let's respond to each post with a "notice or wonder" comment.

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Each table group read a section in their history textbooks to become the "expert" on the topic. They were instructed to come up with 3 big ideas, 2 unanswered questions, and 2 answers to those questions by looking them up on the computers.

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Academy V slightly adjusted the reading log to include images of the icons. Students were instructed to draw the icon next to each day's activity as an indication of their selected activity.

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I use question bubbles for students to write questions on and stick on the board for us to discuss at the end of each lesson. Students can walk up and take a speech bubble and write a question at any time without disturbing the class.

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I use question bubbles for students to write questions on and stick on the board for us to discuss at the end of each lesson. Students can walk up and take a speech bubble and write a question at any time without disturbing the class.

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Unanswered questions in science

I use question bubbles for students to write questions on and stick on the board for us to discuss at the end of each lesson. Students can walk up and take a speech bubble and write a question at any time without disturbing the class.

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While students collect information in quadrant #1 of their books, we use the details icon. When they move into the second quadrant, we will add Big Idea and Patterns. In the third quadrant, we will additionally add Change Over Time (as characters transform) and continue to flush out Big Ideas. I may add Language of the Disciplines...each literature book will be unique, but the higher-level thinking skills will match each ascending quadrant of the book.

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Students read a parable and respond to a prompt each night. On Friday they get into groups and discuss what they have been reading/thinking about.

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We are integrating these vocabulary frames as a way to study important words from our read aloud book!

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Responses to literature that challenge readers at all levels. :) This girl forgot to draw the icon, but her reflections were strong.

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Grappling with challenging ethical dilemmas as they relate to our literature unit.

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Padlets reflecting D&C in literature.

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Students filled this out after hearing interview presentations from the Loyalist and Patriot perspectives.

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To deepen students' understanding of the conflict between Native Americans and explorers, they considered the paradox in their perspectives.

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Students used this frame to enhance their reading of 2 sections in the textbook.

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Using an idea from Just Teaching, I pulled a quote from the students' Jane Schaffer writing responses, and the students had to defend their thinking under the context of a D&C icon. In this way, ALL students could have a portion of their paper shared with the class, even if the entire paper was not exemplary. Regarding grading, I could focus on the defense of their thinking rather than on writing skills.