D & D: A Theater of the Mind!

By: Jordan Lancaster, AmeriCorps Member | Schools Uniting Neighborhoods

Metropolitan Family Service

Teaching a course like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) can be thrilling, challenging, and an overall fun experience. Creativity and imagination are at the root of everything you do while creating and playing D&D. This is exactly how it went when I began teaching D&D for a middle school-aged group.

I did not know what to expect, only that I wanted my students to learn the ins and outs of the game, as well as connect to their characters and with each other.

Through the assistance of the Passages Arts Connection, I was able to obtain supplies and materials that I otherwise would not have had access to. These supplies allowed students to have their own dice sets, notebooks, and player sheets that they could have for themselves. This was a major advantage for this class, as it enabled the students to fully immerse themselves into our campaign.

Our course covered everything, from the basics of the gameplay, to how to create their characters, and even completing their own campaign. The campaigns allow students to use critical thinking, thought processing, and working with others.

By the end of the course, the characters, named Dormo, Celeste Churro, Yaki, and more, were one cohesive group that was able to defeat the final boss and save the Little Town of Tusk.

The assistance provided by the Passages Arts Connection was amazing and I was happy to teach such an enjoyable course such as D & D for a fun group of students.