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Tell the Wolves I’m Home by C. R. Brunt

This book centers around 14-year-old June through the loss of her closest friend and uncle to a “mysterious illness” combined with a loneliness only truly understood by adolescence. June does not find solace in her tense relationship with her sister nor her parents, however, but in the unlikely friendship that grows between herself and her uncle’s partner. TtWIH tells a story of overcoming grief, and a resiliency through a historical movement that shaped communities. (~ 360 pages)

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9th Grade ELA

I’d ideally like to teach this book and it’s contexts to a 9th grade ELA class that boasts a broad amount of diversity. A primary focus for me within this book is activism, and encouraging students to find and locate their voices. Through teaching students about a historical context of LGBTQ+ individuals, my goal is to then open the classroom into a larger look at the societal pressures that we individually feel and how to push back. Supplementary materials and guided notes for comprehension will be made available to all individuals.

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Why AIDs?

Vito Russo, ACT UP activist & co-founder of GLAAD

David Wojnarowicz, 1988

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Goals & Objectives

Inquiry

Goals

How do the opinions of AIDs differ between LGBT+ communities & cis-straight communities?
How does the AIDs epidemic compare to the COVID-19 pandemic?
To what means can we take action against injustice?

Examine and assess AIDs relief and assistance through literature and historical documentation.
Compare and contrast the AIDs epidemic to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigate a societal issue relevant to you and create an informational resource providing information and opportunity for aid.

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Unit Layout

Week 1

Free-write about COVID experience.

Watch “Reagan Administration's Chilling Response to the AIDS Crisis”.

Read Vito Russo’s “Why We Fight”.

Begin reading Tell the Wolves I’m Home.

Weeks 2-3

Read through Tell the Wolves I’m Home while writing journal entries (+/-) with in-class, out-loud/silent reading opportunities and student-created discussion question-lead conversation.

Weeks 4-5

Final project open workshop:

Research a topic of social justice of relevance to you; write a 1 page explanation of what your focus is, the importance it has to you, and a list of 2-3 organizations locally that provide assistance within this area.

Create a resource flyer geared toward providing awareness and alleviating your chosen topic providing information about the nonprofits you’ve found. All flyers will be placed at local community centers to increase access to these resources; email me PDF files for mass-print.

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Vito Russo

1946-1990

Activist, Film Historian, Author

Why teach AIDs & COVID together?

“In a lot of ways, AIDS activists are like those doctors out there -- they're so busy putting out fires and taking care of people on respirators, that they don't have the time to take care of all the sick people. We're so busy putting out fires right now, that we don't have the time to talk to each other and strategize and plan for the next wave, and the next day, and next month and the next week and the next year.

And, we're going to have to find the time to do that in the next few months. And, we have to commit ourselves to doing that. And then, after we kick the shit out of this disease, we're all going to be alive to kick the shit out of this system, so that this never happens again.”