I am an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in China. I teach 10th and 11th grade. Most of my students don't have the English ability to get through a novel or do in-depth literature analysis. Most of their reading ability/comprehension would be closer to 6th grade reading levels.
In my classes we focus: new vocabulary grammar & writing reading skills (skimming/scanning, separating fact/speculation, critical thinking, predicting, and a slew of other reading skills)
In recent efforts to make the classroom environment more interesting and engaging, I introduced DnD. All of my students made characters, we've learned and practiced the rules (extremely simplified), and practiced combat and ability checks. So they have a base understanding of the game.
The problem I've run into is that now I'm not entirely sure how to implement my course work into the game. For example, we're doing a reading lesson this afternoon titled 'Hidden Cities', which explores information about a couple of underground cities in Turkey. This is honestly a really cool topic that meshes pretty great with DnD themes--but I'm not sure how to have them practice reading comprehension in a way that also lets them use their dice and play the game at the same time. The only thing I can think of (because one of the reading skills for this lesson is fact/speculation), is to do the reading as a class and then have them talk to NPCs to make insight checks--which would probably get a little boring if that's the only thing they're doing over the course of a 45 minute class.
Another example is a vocabulary lesson. Last week I introduced a list of 12 new words--but we didn't do anything with it for the game because I couldn't think of anything. We did the words in class, practiced sentences, they did their bookwork, and that was it. Or a writing lesson, where they have to meet specific writing goals and improve their writing ability.
I've scoured the internet and found a slew of resources that talk about using DnD in an English Lit classroom (really cool lesson on Beowulf), or in a young learners classroom that focuses on emotional skills and learning teamwork, and a ton of other ways in various kinds of classrooms. I've found a ton of articles that talk about the benefits of using DnD in the classroom, or how people have implement the rules/general play. But I haven't really found anything that focuses on an ESL classroom or the varied subjects we focus on. My remaining topics for the year: Exploration (what we're currently on), Music with a Message (like concerts that raise money for charities), Animal Behavior, and The Power of Images (using photography to send a message).
Any suggestions or links to resources would be massively appreciated. I feel like I've spent every waking hour for the past three weeks trying to solve this and my brain is just fried.
I've been running D&D (and other role-playing games) in the classroom for over a decade.
For vocabulary: Each lesson/session I prepare and use some advanced vocabulary words to describe the environments or objects or NPCs with which the characters will interact and these serve as a lesson's/session's vocabulary. To be reviewed at home. I then test the students on some of these during a warm-up activity the following lesson/session that also includes a re-cap of the previous lesson's/session's events to test comprehension. They are encouraged to use some of these words in their own speaking or writing.
For listening: Each student also has to keep a journal and make note of things such as clues or rumours or even his or her character's thoughts or assumptions about other characters' motivations or those of any NPCs. And paste into their journals any player aids I distribute among them. These journals are to be reviewed at home as well as consulted and read in class.
For writing and grammar: Students are required to write narrative summaries of each lesson/session for homework.
For reading: I occasionally set reading passages for homework. But mostly try to introduce some reading into each lesson/session. Letters the characters have received. And so on.
For speaking: Students obviously need to speak to express what they want their characters to do or say. I also have them get into pairs so they can share with a classmate what they have written for homework. I do remember having read years ago a paper about using role-playing games in an ESL environment. Which said the biggest benefit of doing so was the spontaneity of the communication that takes place.
I hope this is of some help.
I don't have to deal with the curricular constraints you mentioned as these classes are not making use of D&D to teach other subjects—these are dedicated D&D classes!—but hopefully you can apply some of these ideas in your classroom!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I am an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in China. I teach 10th and 11th grade. Most of my students don't have the English ability to get through a novel or do in-depth literature analysis. Most of their reading ability/comprehension would be closer to 6th grade reading levels.
In my classes we focus:
new vocabulary
grammar & writing
reading skills (skimming/scanning, separating fact/speculation, critical thinking, predicting, and a slew of other reading skills)
In recent efforts to make the classroom environment more interesting and engaging, I introduced DnD. All of my students made characters, we've learned and practiced the rules (extremely simplified), and practiced combat and ability checks. So they have a base understanding of the game.
The problem I've run into is that now I'm not entirely sure how to implement my course work into the game. For example, we're doing a reading lesson this afternoon titled 'Hidden Cities', which explores information about a couple of underground cities in Turkey. This is honestly a really cool topic that meshes pretty great with DnD themes--but I'm not sure how to have them practice reading comprehension in a way that also lets them use their dice and play the game at the same time. The only thing I can think of (because one of the reading skills for this lesson is fact/speculation), is to do the reading as a class and then have them talk to NPCs to make insight checks--which would probably get a little boring if that's the only thing they're doing over the course of a 45 minute class.
Another example is a vocabulary lesson. Last week I introduced a list of 12 new words--but we didn't do anything with it for the game because I couldn't think of anything. We did the words in class, practiced sentences, they did their bookwork, and that was it. Or a writing lesson, where they have to meet specific writing goals and improve their writing ability.
I've scoured the internet and found a slew of resources that talk about using DnD in an English Lit classroom (really cool lesson on Beowulf), or in a young learners classroom that focuses on emotional skills and learning teamwork, and a ton of other ways in various kinds of classrooms. I've found a ton of articles that talk about the benefits of using DnD in the classroom, or how people have implement the rules/general play. But I haven't really found anything that focuses on an ESL classroom or the varied subjects we focus on. My remaining topics for the year: Exploration (what we're currently on), Music with a Message (like concerts that raise money for charities), Animal Behavior, and The Power of Images (using photography to send a message).
Any suggestions or links to resources would be massively appreciated. I feel like I've spent every waking hour for the past three weeks trying to solve this and my brain is just fried.
I've been running D&D (and other role-playing games) in the classroom for over a decade.
For vocabulary: Each lesson/session I prepare and use some advanced vocabulary words to describe the environments or objects or NPCs with which the characters will interact and these serve as a lesson's/session's vocabulary. To be reviewed at home. I then test the students on some of these during a warm-up activity the following lesson/session that also includes a re-cap of the previous lesson's/session's events to test comprehension. They are encouraged to use some of these words in their own speaking or writing.
For listening: Each student also has to keep a journal and make note of things such as clues or rumours or even his or her character's thoughts or assumptions about other characters' motivations or those of any NPCs. And paste into their journals any player aids I distribute among them. These journals are to be reviewed at home as well as consulted and read in class.
For writing and grammar: Students are required to write narrative summaries of each lesson/session for homework.
For reading: I occasionally set reading passages for homework. But mostly try to introduce some reading into each lesson/session. Letters the characters have received. And so on.
For speaking: Students obviously need to speak to express what they want their characters to do or say. I also have them get into pairs so they can share with a classmate what they have written for homework. I do remember having read years ago a paper about using role-playing games in an ESL environment. Which said the biggest benefit of doing so was the spontaneity of the communication that takes place.
I hope this is of some help.
I don't have to deal with the curricular constraints you mentioned as these classes are not making use of D&D to teach other subjects—these are dedicated D&D classes!—but hopefully you can apply some of these ideas in your classroom!