Details

***The Elements of Depth & Complexity are, to put it simply, a framing tool for creating critical writing prompts. Each Element is paired with an Icon. Drawing and/or memorizing the Icon is secondary to the actual USE of the Element to create better questions. When students learn what each Element means, they can start creating prompts for themselves, saving the teacher a lot of time.

Use this Element to get students to take a deeper look at the defining features or characteristics of a topic and to use evidence to support their claims. The goal is to have them find and make connections and to use evidence to support their claims.

Prompts may include:

  • Illustrating key details
  • Imagining details that weren’t mentioned
  • Describing foundational details
  • Giving an opinion on key details
  • Drawing conclusions from key details to establish and expand on a pattern
  • Comparing and/or contrasting specific details about a setting, character, theme, idea, etc. across a single text or multiple texts.

Social Studies

  1. Use research to sketch a picture of what you think the inside of a Caddo home would look like. Include as many details as possible regarding their food, clothing, and shelter.
  2. Explain what each line of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ means in simple language.
  3. Create a timeline of specific events that led to the American Revolution. Be as detailed as possible.
  4. Choose a single sentence from your reading that embodies the Big Idea of this topic. Explain what details of this sentence best summarize the underlying themes of the topic.
  5. List the details surrounding the conflict in your reading. If the conflict were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? Describe or sketch it.
  6. What details about the buildings show that both women and minorities were discriminated against?
  7. What are the details surrounding the ethics involved in this historically significant event? What would you have done differently?

English

  1. Choose a single sentence from your reading that embodies the Big Idea of this topic. Explain what details of this sentence best summarize the underlying themes of the topic.
  2. List the details surrounding the conflict in your reading. If the conflict were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? Describe or sketch it.
  3. Survey your friends and your teacher about the most common misconception students have about this topic. Map out the details for why this happens, and provide a thoughtful solution to fix this misconception. Provide mnemonics, visuals, and/or other strategies.
  4. What are the details surrounding the ethics involved in this text? What would you change?
  5. What was the most important object in this story? Explain why, without this object, the story would lose meaning.
  6. What scene or part of the story was the most vivid for you? Sketch it and include at least 8 strong details.

Math

  1. Survey your friends and your teacher about the most common misconception students have about this topic. Map out the details for why this happens, and provide a thoughtful solution to fix this misconception. Provide mnemonics, visuals, and/or other strategies.
  2. Represent what we just learned graphically, in a table, as a story problem, and as an equation. Which of your representation makes the most sense to you? Why?
  3. Write a real-world story problem that involves the type of math you’re learning in class. Leave out a small but important part of the math problem and explain why it’s unsolvable without that detail.
  4. Think about the steps in this process. Was anything left out? Were any mistakes made? How would you do it differently?”
  5. Find the mistake in the solution to this problem. Detail the correct process as you solve it.
  6. With a partner, create a story problem about this topic. Use a lot of extra details that aren’t necessary to solve the problem to try to trick your partner. Trade problems with your partner and solve. Discuss your results (you must be able to actually solve your problem).
  7. Write a riddle for a friend using detail and a specific topic or topics we’ve learned in class. Video your friend solving the riddle and provide a play-by-play about their strategy (like a sports commentator).
  8. Make a poster that highlights the steps in a process that we learned in class. The poster must be colorful, provide visual aids, and include written descriptions of each step in your process.
  9. Do you have a special strategy that wasn’t mentioned in class that you like to use to solve a problem? If you’re aching to share your strategy, invent a math problem like the ones we’re doing in class and write out the steps of your strategy in detail as you solve the problem. Video yourself solving the problem and provide evidence for why your way is the best!
  10. Use details from this topic to write a short story with a moral or ethical dilemma. The protagonist must use concepts from this topic in your story. Illustrate your story.

Science

  1. List the details surrounding the conflict in your reading. If the conflict were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? Describe or sketch it.
  2. Illustrate and label all of the steps in the water cycle from the perspective of a molecule of water.
  3. Compare and contrast how a penguin survives the cold with how a polar bear survives the cold.
  4. Collect and analyze data to predict how weathering, erosion, and deposition have affected the Guadalupe River over the last decade.
  5. Illustrate and label a food web that shows the interactions between as many organisms as you can think of in an Amazonian Rainforest.
  6. Choose a single sentence from your reading that embodies the Big Idea of this topic. Explain what details of this sentence best summarize the underlying themes of the topic.
  7. How does the story show the progression of acceptance of women and minorities in the field of math and science?
  8. What are the details surrounding the ethics involved in this article? What would you change if you were in charge?