I am honoured and humbled to be in a cool news story from my school district on tabletop games in my classroom:

Dungeons & Dragons in the classroom

Published on: Oct 16, 2024 3:19 PM

A teacher at D.S. MacKenzie School has partnered with local gaming and hobby stores to implement Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as a literacy support tool.

Incorporated into Grade 7 and 8 Language Arts classes thanks to contributions from Authentic Dungeons, Taps Games and the Rediscovered Realms newsletter, Teacher Landen Blize says it is creative, engaging, and practical. He has even put a website together (The Literary Dungeon) to showcase what he has learned and how, in an effort to share with fellow educators.

Grade 7 students are using a solo role-playing/journaling game as a writing warmup at the start of each week. One block was spent developing the setting, and each subsequent first-day-of-the-week blocks are spent rolling dice to see who visits, how much time has passed between visitors, and what the weather is to set the mood. Landen then models the start of a journal entry for the students to copy, and they then continue on their own.

Additionally, Grade 7 and 8 students are starting a writing unit playing Dungeons & Dragons. They are given a simplified pre-made character sheet with which they develop character descriptions and backstories. Afterward, students play an adventure as their characters in groups of four while taking turns fulfilling the role of Dungeon Master (basically a storytelling referee). During the game, students complete graphic organizers for paragraph writing and eventually convert short stories—before they know it, students will have met all the Language Arts general outcomes and written a short story with a setting, plot, characters, conflict, and theme. Landen says they’ll play another adventure later in the year to develop their persuasive writing.

Beyond the classroom, the Knights of MacKenzie Keep club began meeting in early October. Every Friday at lunch, students will gather to train in playing and refereeing, and they will play a very short adventure to get a feel for Dungeons & Dragons. Landen says students can then choose to continue playing simplified adventures or go as deep into the lore as they please. Students can also choose from other role-playing games with similar rulesets, such as a game developed by NASA, a game played as adventurous mice, or an Indigenous-made game called Coyote and Crow.

“Why not make school more playful? Much can be accomplished through play,” says Landen.