2026 Annual Online Conference

The Depth & Complexity Framework is the most widely used differentiation technique in the country. Used in hundreds of thousands of classrooms, it provides teachers with concrete tools that elicit high-level thinking and raise the learning bar for all students. Join an elementary practitioner and learn how Depth & Complexity and the Icons create appropriately differentiated learning experiences while prompting students to think like professionals.

Secondary teachers face several challenges when introducing and using Depth & Complexity with their students. Join a secondary practitioner, speaking secondary teacher language, to explore the best strategies for introducing and using the Depth & Complexity Icons with middle and high school students. Participants will leave ready to incorporate the Framework into their instruction right away.

The Depth & Complexity Framework has become the “go-to” technique for creating differentiated learning opportunities while making traditionally scripted curriculum more open-ended. In this session, participants will explore the components of the Framework and focus on how school and district leaders can seamlessly integrate Depth & Complexity with current initiatives. Administrators and instructional coaches will leave with practical strategies for supporting implementation and creating learning environments in which all students are appropriately challenged.

The Unanswered Questions Icon is one of the most powerful - yet most commonly misused - elements of the Depth & Complexity Framework. Too often, it is reduced to asking students any question rather than strategically prompting the kinds of unanswered questions that naturally drive deeper thinking. Participants will examine how subtle shifts in the use of this Icon can push students beyond surface-level responses and into higher levels of analysis, evaluation, intellectual curiosity, uncertainty, and multiple possibilities.

This interactive session models a variety of engaging activities using the Depth & Complexity Framework to foster both convergent and divergent thinking. Participants will experience hands-on strategies that apply across grade levels and content areas. Attendees will leave with a ready-to-use toolkit of activities and a deeper understanding of how to build a dynamic, collaborative classroom in which every student is an active participant.

Using the Depth & Complexity Framework increases instructional challenge while providing multilingual learners with opportunities to exhibit complex thinking and strengthen academic language proficiency. Participants will explore how the Framework supports language development through intentional use of academic vocabulary, structured discourse, and multiple entry points for student engagement. Educators will design activities that allow students to listen, speak, read, and write while engaging in more in-depth and complex ways. Participants will leave with practical strategies that support language acquisition while elevating thinking and participation for all learners.

What if understanding how students learn made teaching feel more natural and effective? This session explores the neuroscience behind the Depth & Complexity Framework - how the brain encodes, organizes, and retrieves information - and why the components of the Framework align so seamlessly with those processes. Participants will connect these ideas to practical classroom applications, making implementation feel purposeful rather than forced. Discover the “why” behind the Framework and use it with greater confidence and ease.

The Differentiated Task Statement is one of the original foundational components of the Depth & Complexity Framework, yet educators often misunderstand or misuse it. When implemented effectively, it becomes a powerful tool that makes integrating the Framework both natural and efficient. This session focuses on how Task Statements can be used as differentiation and planning tools, providing countless thinking options for students. Participants will practice creating Task Statements that align with their curriculum, district initiatives, and instructional goals.

This session focuses on using the Depth & Complexity Framework to elevate student writing across content areas. Rather than relying on traditional writing assignments that often lead to predictable responses, participants will explore how Icons and Iconic Pathways - when paired with critical and creative thinking - help students develop ideas more independently and produce writing that is deeper, more original, and worth reading. Attendees will leave with clear, transferable strategies that strengthen student writing and help students articulate and support their ideas.

Math instruction is often highly scripted and content-heavy, leaving teachers with little time to incorporate meaningful differentiation. Daily warm-ups provide an ideal opportunity to overcome this challenge. In this session, participants will explore how Depth & Complexity Math Mats can transform short warm-ups into rigorous learning experiences that strengthen conceptual understanding, encourage mathematical discourse, and prompt students to explain the “why” behind their thinking. The Mats also create opportunities for students to identify and break patterns, approach problems from different perspectives, and develop creative solutions. Teachers will leave with practical strategies for bringing complex thinking and differentiation into the math classroom without sacrificing valuable instructional time.

Many educators and administrators believe the Depth & Complexity Framework is not applicable to primary students. In reality, creative and critical thinking should be empowered from the moment students enter school. All learners - including our youngest - deserve to be treated as scholars and prompted to think like professionals. In this session, an expert Depth & Complexity practitioner with extensive experience using the Framework with students as young as kindergarten will share simple, powerful strategies designed specifically for primary classrooms. Participants will leave with practical techniques that are easy to implement and immediately elevate thinking, engagement, and differentiation for young learners. Our youngest students are capable of complex thinking - and they deserve the opportunity to demonstrate it.

Depth & Complexity is a widely used differentiation framework that can easily be aligned with the core curriculum. In this session, participants will explore practical ways to embed the Depth & Complexity Icons into middle and high school English instruction on a daily basis. Students will analyze and evaluate content in a deeper manner as traditionally scripted curriculum becomes more open-ended, stimulating the abilities of all learners. Participants will leave with strategies they can immediately apply to the literature, writing, and language instruction they already teach.

A sophisticated way to engage and empower deep, abstract learning is to employ a Universal Concept and its associated generalizations across whatever is being studied. Whether used as an overarching idea for a unit, semester, or entire year, this valuable practice invites students to generalize, prove with evidence, recognize relationships, and re-examine knowledge. It provides the “net” that captures and connects what students learn in mathematics, science, literature, social studies, and the arts.

Move students beyond basic comprehension by using the Depth & Complexity Icons as purposeful lenses for reading and annotation. Participants will explore how students can analyze complex texts, primary sources, sample assessments, and model responses through multiple iconic perspectives. The session will also demonstrate how Iconic Pathways can help students recognize the elements of an effective response, organize their own thinking, and provide meaningful peer feedback. Attendees will examine authentic student work and leave with practical strategies that apply throughout the humanities across multiple grade levels.

As curriculum initiatives become increasingly prescriptive in pursuit of higher scores on a single end-of-year assessment, teachers often find it difficult - and incredibly frustrating - to create critical-thinking opportunities for students. Even in this era of proclaimed “high-quality instructional materials” (HQIM), practical tools that allow teachers to appropriately challenge and differentiate for all learners can be hard to find. The Depth & Complexity Framework meets that challenge by “dealing educators back into the game.” Its power lies in its ability to serve as a companion to any curriculum or HQIM, honoring the vast differences in how students learn, interact with content, and demonstrate their cognitive strengths. Through a few simple integration strategies, participants will discover how to move beyond the script and make even the most overwhelming curriculum come alive for teachers and students.

Explore real-world connections to content by incorporating disciplinarian thinking into instruction. Participants will examine how the Depth & Complexity Framework encourages students to adopt the habits, language, methods, and perspectives of practicing professionals. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for helping students expand their expertise, approach content through professional lenses, and make meaningful connections between classroom learning and the real world.

Depth & Complexity resources are too often underutilized within the instructional setting. Educators receive products at workshops, but there is rarely enough time spent demonstrating techniques for using those resources successfully. Join a Depth & Complexity expert and discover proven ways to use some of The Center for Depth & Complexity’s most popular hard-copy and digital resources. Participants will leave prepared to get significantly more instructional value from the tools already available to them.

With so much attention focused on achievement in RELA and mathematics, science can sometimes feel lost within the broader educational landscape. Achievement data indicates that many students are struggling to grasp core science concepts. This session demonstrates how the Depth & Complexity Framework engages students in disciplinary thinking similar to that of professionals across various scientific fields. Students recognize and analyze patterns while examining ideas from multiple perspectives. Universal Concepts and generalizations become powerful tools that drive interdisciplinary thinking and challenge students to analyze evidence, test hypotheses, and refine Big Ideas.