LESSON PLAN

Grade: 5
Lesson Title: DND Character Traits
Lesson Duration: 2 Lessons @ 30 mins each.

Overview of lesson

Using the concept of Dungeons and Dragons the students will practice describing a character and the traits associated
with that character. They will also get to experience potentially having to write about something they aren’t interested
in and still recording specific details.
Alberta Program of Study: Goals and Objectives.
GLO SLO/KUSP
- Students enhance the accuracy and - Publish selected pieces, incorporating graphics,
artistry of expression through creative captions, charts, or other text features to support a
and critical thinking processes. purpose or connect with an audience.
- Create written texts in a variety of forms and structures.

Learning Objectives

● Students will practice creating written texts in a variety of forms

●

Guiding Questions:

List your Questions here:

● Why do we practice describing other people or characters?
● How does writing it down help?

Learning Resources & Materials

- Pictures of potential races for visual reference

- Character worksheet or paper for them to record their character
- Dice for trait assignments
- Video for introducing the topic
- Having definitions ready for any potentially difficult words
 Lesson Procedures

Classroom Management Techniques

- The video is predicated on the students behaving, if they get too loud it ends the video (establish that before playing it)
- Rules for use of the dice and have the teacher helpers collect the dice once everyone is done rolling.

Lesson Body:

Steps and Procedures: Differentiation:

For Fatima and potentially kade have premade
characters for them to write about.
Activity #1: Introduce the class to Dungeons and Dragons (if a
student wants to explain it, have them) and then get them prepared Assessments(Formative)
to create their own character by first showing them the youtube
video. Type/Name: Character Submission
Where Assessment Occurs:
Activity #2: Students will create their character, rolling dice to - Characters will be submitted and graded
determine what traits their character will be assigned. After they on the rubric make
have finished the dice process the students will write both a features
and backstory section.

Activity #3: Reinforce the importance of creative writing, then show

the factors from the rubric that we will be looking for so they are
fully informed on expectations. Remind them the option of using the
yellow folders for help.

Consolidating and Closure: ( remainder of the period )

Why do we practice describing characters and traits about them?

All through history people have kept their entire history alive just by telling stories and the people who heard these
stories had to keep track of the details so they could share it again when the time came to do so. Do we know of any
groups today who still practice that? (Indigenous groups, grandparents, friends) While it isn’t the only way we record
what has happened in our lives it is still something we practice almost every day without thinking about it.
 Reflection
So both of these lessons had strong engagement. The content was familiar to so much of the
class that everyone had a surprisingly strong sense of what was expected. Making the
characters and the process behind it went very smoothly, the students remained on task and
completion of character building was a very fun process. The challenge of this lesson came
up with the concept of forming a background for the character. I didn’t do a good job
scaffolding them towards understanding what that entailed and how to form one of their own.
With this oversight I ultimately removed that section from their rubric in an effort to maintain a
fair expectation and account for what they could accurately be assessed on. In the future I will
set more time aside to demonstrate the concept and practice of applying the backstory. After
the use of the approach I do, We do, You do. The students should have a stronger concept of
how to develop their own background for a unique character. I also had a conversation with
another teacher who talked about the idea of creating a weekly “event” for the students to
reply to what their character would do in that situation.