Cemetery Boys

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What are some strategies for countering exclusion? What strides have social institutions (such as education or the workplace) made in recent times toward inclusivity, and what continuing improvements and progress should be prioritized?   

Teaching Suggestion: It may be helpful to introduce the topic through a discussion of the school’s own inclusivity policies; alternatively, students might investigate the novel itself as an example of inclusivity, as it is the first work featuring a trans character to appear on The New York Times’s bestseller list. As a concept, inclusivity involves understanding and communicating with appropriate and specific terminology; as such, for this novel study, it may be beneficial for the class to review or discuss terms that may be new to some students, such as “deadnaming,” “gender dysphoria,” and others.

• These points from the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning offer ideas on “Inclusive Classroom Climate” and may provide teachers with points, language, and information for leading discussion on inclusivity. Students might discuss the examples given and think critically about classroom environments they have observed.