Game Changer

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The protagonist in a novel undergoes significant change because of the events in the story. Most often, it involves a change in their outlook or even in their self-perception.

• Although Teddy Youngblood is at the center of the story’s conflict, could Ethan Metzger be considered the novel’s protagonist? (topic sentence)
• Consider Ethan’s actions in the immediate aftermath of the football camp events; discuss his remarks to the therapist. Why does he keep returning to the therapist long after the mandatory meetings are over?
• In your concluding sentences, analyze how Ethan has changed by the end of the novel. What has the experience taught him about other people, about handling guilt, and about accepting responsibility?

2. Teddy’s family provides him with a support system. Yet each member of the family represents a different response to both Teddy’s injury and sports in general.

• Why does each member of Teddy’s family respond differently to his situation? (topic sentence)
• Review the three responses and the beliefs or values that explain them. Why does Teddy’s father hold onto the belief that his injury was just an accident? Why does Teddy’s mother demand that he never play football again? Why does Janey shoo the football team out of her brother’s hospital room?
• In your conclusion, briefly explore the significance of the family praying together after Ethan’s confession.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. The title Game Changer has several possible interpretations. For example, young Teddy dreams of being a game changer in Walthorne football, breaking records and bringing home championships to a town that takes pride in its football. His injury means that is not going to happen. But Teddy is game changer in other ways. How else is Teddy a game changer? How has he impacted his family and his school? What does his injury and the responses from the school reveal about his family, his friends, his community? In what ways will he be a game changer even if he never puts on a uniform again? Use details from the novel to support your answer.

2.For most of the novel, Teddy Youngblood is in a coma. Discuss how the novel uses the idea of a coma—a time apart for restoring health—in other situations the novel explores. Consider, for example, the actions and characteristics of Teddy’s parents, Ethan, and the school community. Use details and quotations from the novel to support your ideas.

3. Social media plays an important role in bringing to light the circumstances of Teddy’s injury. In a world before social media, the truth of the “accident” could very well have never been revealed. Using evidence from Camille’s initial website, the postings of Alec (or “Clea”), and the increasingly toxic rhetoric of the football team captain, explore the impact, good and bad, of social media on the characters. How does social media promote honesty? How does it encourage lying?