Author: jb

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment

This was tricky for me because they were being asked both to create the texts they would eventually analyze, and then in later analyze them.  Here’s what I did: As I’ve posted about previously, the students each participated in 5 85-minute block days where they did 3 things: Read parts of Beowulf, answered questions that … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit Part 4 – Assessment →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons

The Adventure - ~3 weeks of class time (5 85-minute blocks) This post and the next will be more nuts and bolts - I’ve previously written about the why, now I’ll share about the how.  This one will be about the bulk of the unit, where kids plays D&D and read Beowulf (some of them … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 3 – Day to Day Lessons →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit

How I Tried to Make This Work in the Classroom [I will write more later about how the individual class days went as things got moving, and also how I tied this more directly into AP Lit in terms of assessments.] Dungeons and Dragons is notorious for its baroque rules structure.  If the first thing … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Part 2 – How I Set Up the Unit →

Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature”

“What do D&D, the Odyssey and Hip-Hop Have in Common?” This question may feel strange because your vision of D&D may conjure up some very specific images of a very specific type of white male. Wanting to press at this a little, when I first posed this question to my class, I then I asked … Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons in AP Lit – Addendum to Part 1 – White Supremacy – What Counts as “Literature” →

Dungeons & Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This?

[I will write more later about what happened in the classroom, what lessons I learned for next time, what I ended up doing to grade them, and how I think this will help them with the rest of the AP Lit curriculum and test) Part 1 - Where Did I Get this Idea?  - Or … Continue reading Dungeons & Dragons in my AP Lit Classroom – Part 1 – Why Did I Want to Try This? →

Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching

[This is the final part of a longer series – previous track - "Thieves in the Night"] https://www.youtube.com/embed/DZ7dlo3PWhk Reaching the end of these posts I'm brought back to the beginning, the first time I listened to Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. I got to "Twice Inna Lifetime", about 4.5 miles into the 5 mile … Continue reading Twice Inna Lifetime (Track 13) and Conclusions about Teaching →

Hater Players (Track 9)

[This is part 9 of a longer series – previous track - "KOS (Determination)" - next track - "Yo Yeah"] https://www.youtube.com/embed/3iewg3zp-yI This song seems to come pretty hard at the same folks that “Re-Definition” was going after but a little more in the vernacular of a more straightforward diss track.  About halfway through, though, we get this … Continue reading Hater Players (Track 9) →