Add depth and complexity to your instruction with these Critical Thinking Choice Boards for any piece of literature, math, science, or social studies skill! These choice boards allow students to deeply analyze reading/math material through 11 topics of critical thinking: Big Ideas, Rules, Trends, Patterns, Language of the Discipline, Ethics, Relationships Over Time, Details, Unanswered Questions, Across Disciplines, and Multiple Perspectives.

All choice boards are opened ended enough for you to use with any text and math skill throughout the year. These are great to use for differentiation and even literature circles. Have students think, pair, share their answers, write a response, or even debate their answers!

NEW! Now students can take ownership of their learning and generate questions for a standard/skill using each depth & complexity icon.

Each choice board is available in color or black and white!

The Icons that promote Depth are as follows:

Ethics (Morals, Right vs. Wrong, Values or Judgments, Pros and Cons)

Big Idea (Overarching Idea, Theme or Generalizations, Whole)

Details (Evidence, Description, Characteristics, Parts)

Unanswered Questions (Unknown or Unexplained, Uncertain, Dilemma)

Rules (Classify, Organize, Structure, Methods or Procedure)

Trends (Tendencies, Style, Influence)

Patterns (Repetitive, Cycle, Predict, Recurring)

Language of the Discipline (Speech, Terminology, Vocabulary)

The Icons that promote Complexity are as follows:

Changes Over Time (Past, Present, Future, Change, Connections Across Time)

Across Disciplines (Multidisciplinary, Across Different Subjects, Connections)

Multiple Perspectives (Different Points of View, Different Ways of Seeing Things, Affected by Roles)

Please note: This resource was created based on the Depth and Complexity framework, which was developed by Dr. Sandra Kaplan under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement: 1996

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