Thursday 26 April 2018

The Classroom Magic of Dungeons and Dragons

After school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work with a small group of students to help them build and strengthen literacy, critical thinking skills, and communication skills. The group was much larger before the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), but now that they have written the test, most of the students have been choosing not to attend the extra class. I do, however, have a group of four that have continue to show up, and three of them that always participate in whatever literacy-based activity I have planned. I enjoy having the opportunity to interact with students in a more casual setting than a traditional class, however, planning engaging activities for four students can be a challenge. 

On Tuesday I was trying to think of something to do with this group as I updated my Dungeons and Dragons character sheet for a game that I was going to be attending later that evening. I sifted through my bag of D&D stuff -- players handbook, dice, binder for character sheets, miniature figurine to be placed on the map during combat scenes -- and as if I had been hit with Bardic Inspiration (that's a D&D joke), I decided that instead of grammar games and worksheets, I would lead my class through a mini-session of D&D!

The curriculum-oriented goals for using D&D in the classroom:
  • listening skills
  • reading comprehenion
  • critical/creative thinking and problem-solving
  • numeracy
  • oral communication
The less formal goals:
  • get the students engaged
  • provide the opportunity for the students to have fun
  • get the students to put down their phones
  • share something about which I am enthusiastic
Luckily there are tons of D&D resources available online, and so I was able to come up with a basic story line, find some stats for the enemies that the students would be battling, and printed out some of the character sheets that are available online. 

I started by asking the students if they had heard of Dungeons and Dragons, and they said that they kind of knew what it was about, but not really. I presented them with the character sheets, and explained the characters' abilities and traits. The students each picked a character, gave them a name, and the adventure began.

You find yourselves in the town hall of a small village.

The mayor says to you: “A band of goblins has stolen our stash of supplies. Without it, we will not survive the winter, and we will all perish. Please help us! You will be rewarded for your efforts... Please take these healing potions to help you on your way."

One of the townspeople says: “The goblins are hiding out supplies in a cave on the other side of the clearing, just north of the village. Be careful on your way there. They have guards hiding out in the woods.” The townsperson points you in the right direction.

Since you haven't been a quest together before, this is where you can introduce yourselves.

And so one Hill dwarf Cleric, a Human Fighter, a High Elf Wizard, and a Lightfoot halfing Rogue set out to battle wolves and goblins in an effort to retrieve the stolen supplies.

The students loved it! It was just a short, hastily cobbled-together adventure, but they had such a good time. 

After killing one of the two wolves, the Cleric said, "I want to try and keep it as a pet."
"You want to tame the wolf?" I asked incredulously.
The student nodded, "Yes, I want to tame the wolf. Can I do that?"
I couldn't help but smile, "You can certainly try!"

One of the wonderful things about D&D is that creative problem-solving is encouraged, and often rewarded. So with a very lucky animal handling roll, the party gained a wolf ally. They unanimously decided to use a healing potion to help the wolf recover from its near-fatal battle wounds. They showed great compassion to their new wolf friend, and then went on to defeat the goblin bandits.

The best part of the game was that one of the students who was always reluctant to participate in any activities, who usually barely said anything, actually participated enthusiastically! It was incredible to watch him come out of his shell and actually interact with his peers. One of the other students asked if I could start a D&D club as an extracurricular (we already have a gaming club run by another teacher, but this one would just be D&D. I said yes, provided we can get the scheduling to work).

I'm so excited to plan some more adventures for this impromptu party, and I shared that excitement through a Reddit post on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning I woke up to a message from Limitless Adventures () offering some free resources that I can use to plan quests for the students!

In addition to playing D&D, I would also like to lead them through some related activities to world-building and character creation. Now that a spark is lit, I am going to fan this flame and see what catches.

Here are some articles and videos about D&D:

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