Before the Ever After

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 is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)?

Teaching Suggestion: Have students discuss their best guesses as a class. Facilitate a discussion by focusing on each word individually, then as a group. Introduce the meaning of CTE by sharing a simple definition from the Concussion Legacy Foundation; then ask students to predict how they think someone diagnosed with CTE may exhibit symptoms based on the short definition. After further discussion, view the USA Today CTE video.

• Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in individuals with a history of repeated brain trauma. A succinct description of CTE from the Concussion Legacy Foundation provides a general overview of the diagnosis and its effects.
• An in-depth 7-minute video about CTE from USA Today’s Just the FAQs series offers a better understanding of the disease and enhances the currency of the issues. The content includes some high-level vocabulary that students can work to define through context.

Short Activity

Considering what you know about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), craft a short persuasive essay as to whether you believe the government should play a role in managing youth tackle football.