Students at Furneaux Elementary are using specialized language when they come home from school as they learn the elements of depth and complexity. There are icons associated with the different elements of depth and complexity that serve as visual prompts for students. These visual prompts are designed to help students go beyond a surface-level understanding of a concept and enhance their ability to think critically. These critical thinking tools help students dig deeper into a concept (depth) and understand that concept with greater complexity.
For a student to truly understand a topic of study, they must speak the language specific to that topic. Through the different elements of depth and complexity, students study the language of the discipline, details, patterns, rules, big ideas, ethical issues, and trends of a topic. They are able to find unanswered questions, view multiple perspectives, look how things/ideas change over time, and how things/ideas are connected through different disciplines.
In lieu of “learning to read,” these Furneaux students are “reading to learn.”