AP English Language and Composition Tuesday, March 24Th, 2015

AP English Language and Composition – Tuesday, March 24th, 2015

Hello Students! Today you will work in partners to increase your familiarity with the types of questions found on the Smarter Balanced ELA exam, and to maneuver through a practice test.

Specifics:

Work with a DIFFERENT partner from yesterday
Today’s assignment is COMPLETELY COMPUTER-BASED. You will access documents, write into them using MS Word, and save to an electronic folder. Practice your typing and computer navigation skills!
WORK TOGETHER to complete today’s assignment. When you save your assignment, make sure both partners’ names are on the assignment!

Assignment Details:

You will find today’s in-class assignment below these directions. There are TWO PARTS to this assignment:

Literature (fiction) text + questions
Non-fiction text + questions

Read the text. Then complete the corresponding questions. Use the features in MS Word (bold, underline, insert shape, etc.) to fulfil the requirements. You will do this for BOTH the fiction AND the non-fiction assignment

Submit Work:

Save your work (this entire document) as a Word document. Title it in the following format: BothlastnamesSBAPractice (for example: BochenekBochenekSBAPractice)
Save your work in this location:T:\Bochenek\SmarterBalanced
This is due by the end of the class period. Monitor your time and be productive!!

**Assignment! See below!!

p.s. You’re all awesome! 

Assignment Part 1: Non-Fiction Text & Questions

Source #1

Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive

By Alice Park March 24, 2014

Time.com

New research suggests that hours of exposure to violent media like video games can make kids react in more hostile ways compared to ones who don't spend lots of time controller-in-hand, reigniting the debate about children and gaming

Ever since Columbine, in which two students went on a deadly rampage at their high school, television, movies, and video games have been a popular target for senseless acts of violence. After the shooting, the media pushed the narrative that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s inclinations for violent video games, not to mention metal music and goth subculture, were partly to blame for the horrific incident.

Worries about how violence in virtual reality might play out in real life have led legislators to propose everything from taxing violent video games to proposing age restrictions on who can buy them. The inconsistent state of the literature was enough to prompt President Obama in 2013 to call for more research into how violent video games may be influencing kids who use them. While there are studies that don’t show a strong influence between violent media and acts of violence, an ever growing body of research does actually support that violent games can make kids act more aggressively in their real-world relationships.

In the latest work to address the question, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, scientists led by Craig Anderson, director of the center for the study of violence at Iowa State University, found hints that violent video games may set kids up to react in more hostile and violent ways.

Working with 3,034 boys and girls in the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grades in Singapore, Anderson and his colleagues asked the children three times over a period of two years detailed questions about their video game habits. They were also given standardized questionnaires designed to measure their aggressive behavior and attitudes toward violence.

Overall, the students’ scores on aggressive behavior, as well hostile attitudes and fantasies about violence against others, declined slightly throughout the study. That’s because children tend to act less aggressively as they get older, and learn more mature ways of dealing with conflicts than lashing out.

But a closer look at kids who played more hours of violent video games per week revealed increases in aggressive behavior and violent tendencies, compared to those who played fewer hours a week. When asked if it was okay for a boy to strike a peer if that peer said something negative about him, for example, these kids were more likely to say yes. They also scored higher on measures of hostility, answering that they would to respond with aggressive action when provoked, even accidentally. The more long-term gamers were also more likely to fantasize about hitting someone they didn’t like.

“What this study does is show that it’s media violence exposure that is teaching children and adolescents to see the world in a more aggressive kind of way,” says Anderson. “It shows very strongly that repeated exposure to violent video games can increase aggression by increasing aggressive thinking.”

Brain imaging studies also hint that exposure to violent gaming may actually temporarily change the brain. In a 2011 study, for example, after a week of daily video gaming, brain scans of a small group of volunteers showed less activity in the regions connected to emotions, attention, and inhibition of impulses compared to participants who played non-violent video games. The effect appeared to be reversible, but the results suggested that extended periods of play could lead to more stable changes in the brain.

Previous studies have suggested that the short-term effects of spiking stress hormones–typical of the fight-or-flight response–can rev up players’ sensitivity to slights or provocations, and that playing violent games can lead to longer-term suppression of empathy. Another recent study purported to find a link between violent video games and racism. Anderson and his team, however, did not see any significant difference in empathy among the players who played more or fewer hours. That confirmed earlier lab-based studies that showed both undergraduates who played violent games and those that played non-violent ones were equally likely to help scientists pick up dropped pens.

The evolving literature is why some researchers, including Christopher Ferguson, chair of the psychology department at Stetson University, insist there isn’t strong evidence that exposure to violent video games leads to more aggressive behavior. He notes, for example, that the rise in popularity of video gaming has not been matched by a similar rise in violent crime among adolescents who are most likely to play them. Studies that link violent video games to violent behavior, he says, often fail to account for other factors that can contribute to aggression, such as violence in the home, abuse, and mental illness.

Anderson acknowledges that his own study isn’t perfect, and that it’s not likely to be the last word on this controversial topic. While he used measures of aggressive behavior and violent thinking that are well-established scientific tests, these required the children to report on their own actions and attitudes, which isn’t always as reliable or as consistent as an objective measure.

The fine point of this continued debate, though, is that not all players of violent video games are destined to commit violent crimes. What studies like this highlight is the need for a more nuanced picture of the tipping point between violent games and violence, and a better understanding of how the virtual influences regulate real-life behavior.

Source #3

Video gamers’ aggression linked to frustration, not violent content

Melissa Greco Lopes

April 7, 2014

University of Rochester

Aggressive Behavior Linked to Players’ Experiences

The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers’ experiences of failure and frustration during play—not to a game’s violent content.

The study is the first to look at the player’s psychological experience with video games instead of focusing solely on its content. Researchers found that failure to master a game and its controls led to frustration and aggression, regardless of whether the game was violent or not. The findings of the study were published online in the March edition of the Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology.

“Any player who has thrown down a remote control after losing an electronic game can relate to the intense feelings or anger failure can cause,” explains lead author Andrew Przybylski, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, who said such frustration is commonly known among gamers as “rage-quitting.”

That experience is not unique to gaming, says coauthor Richard Ryan, a motivational psychologist at the University of Rochester. For example, in sports, players may lose a game as a result of a bad call. “When people feel they have no control over the outcome of a game, that leads to aggression,” he explains. “We saw that in our experiments. If you press someone’s competencies, they’ll become more aggressive, and our effects held up whether the games were violent or not.”

To tease out which aspects of the gaming experience lead to aggressive feelings, the researchers manipulated the interface, controls, and degree of difficulty in custom-designed video games across six lab experiments. Nearly 600 college-aged participants were tasked with playing the games—many of which included violent and nonviolent variations—and then were tested for aggressive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.

In one experiment, undergraduates held their hand in a bowl of painfully cold water for 25 seconds. They were led to believe that the length of time was determined by a prior participant, but in fact, all participants were assigned the same duration. Next, participants were randomly asked to play either a simple or challenging version of Tetris, after which they were asked to assign the amount of time a future participant would have to leave their hand in the chilled water. Players who experienced the difficult Tetris game assigned on average 10 seconds more of chilled water pain to subsequent players than those who played the easy version.

Across the experiments, researchers found it was not the narrative or imagery, but the lack of mastery of the game’s controls and the degree of difficulty players had completing the game that led to frustration. The study demonstrated that aggression is a negative side effect of the frustration felt while playing the video game. “When the experience involves threats to our ego, it can cause us to be hostile and mean to others,” Ryan explains.

The researchers also surveyed 300 avid gamers to identify how real world gamers might experience the same phenomena. When asked about pre- and post-game feelings, gamers reported that their inability to master a game or its controls caused feelings of frustration and affected their sense of enjoyment in the experience.

Edward L. Deci, professor of psychology and Gown Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Rochester, and C. Scott Rigby, president of Immersyve, a consortium of researchers and interactive development professionals that study motivation and sustained engagement, also contributed to the paper.

The researchers say that the findings offer an important contribution to the debate about the effects of violent video games. Ryan says that many critics of video games have been premature in their conclusions that violent video games cause aggression. “It’s a complicated area, and people have simplistic views,” he explains, noting that nonviolent games like Tetris or Candy Crush can leave players as, if not more, aggressive than games with violence, if they’re poorly designed or too difficult.

Non-Fiction Practice Questions

1.Please select the sentence from Source #1 that best supports the conclusion that violent video games cause aggression in children.

“What this study does show is that it’s media violence exposure that is teaching children and adolescents to see the world in a more aggressive way,” says Anderson.
The inconsistent state of the literature was enough to prompt President Obama in 2013 to call for more research into how violent video games may be influencing kids who use them.
But a closer look at kids who played more hours of violent video games per week revealed increases in aggressive behavior and violent tendencies, compared to those who played fewer hours a week.
Ever since Columbine, in which two students went on a deadly rampage at their high school, television, movies, and video games have been a popular target for senseless acts of violence.

2.Which sentence best summarizes the central idea of Source #1?

Long-term exposure to violent video games can make kids react more aggressively in real situations.
The United States should ban violent video games.
Playing violent games once in a while is harmless.
Violent video games have a greater negative impact on younger kids than older kids.

3.Read this sentence from Source #1: But a closer look at kids who played more hours of violent video games per week revealed increases in aggressive behavior and violent tendencies, compared to those who played fewer hours a week.

What does the word tendenciesmost likely mean?

thoughts
acts
words
images

4.Based on the text in source #3, what conclusion can be drawn about violent video games?

The games make college students act out violently.
Students become frustrated when games are violent.
Video games need to be easier to play.
Aggression comes from frustration and not violent content.

5.Which passage from Source #3 best supports your answer above?

Researchers found that failure to master a game and its controls led to frustration and aggression, regardless of whether the game was violent or not.
Nearly 600 college-aged participants were tasked with playing the games—many of which included violent and nonviolent variations.
The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players.
“Any player who has thrown down a remote control after losing an electronic game can relate to the intense feelings or anger failure can cause,”

6.Select the statement which best describes how the use of the Tetris experiment in Source #3 supports the claim that frustration with a game leads to aggression?

Gamers who are good at playing Tetris tend to be nicer to other people.
After soaking one’s hands in cold water, students had difficulty using the video game controller.
Students who felt frustrated with the game, were more likely to want to inflict pain on other people.
The experiment proved that video games need to be easier play.

7.In Source #1, how does the seventh paragraph affect the structure of the text as a whole?

It provides a logical solution to the problem of violent video games.
It acts as a counter or rebuttal to the data provided in other studies.
It makes an emotional appeals to the reader.
It reinforces the author’s claim and provides a call to action.

8.Read the following statement about Source #1 and the directions that follow:

There seems to be conflicting studies in regards to the harm video games may cause.

Circle the detail that best supports the inference above.

Assignment Part 2: Fiction Text & Questions

Fiction Text

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of the Four

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter I

The Science of Deduction

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.