Assessment+Close+and+Critical+Reading

**Assessment of Close and Critical Reading**
**Students throughout Wayne County were given an informational article to read titled, “ ****Supreme Court to hear violent video games case." ****After reading the text, students responded to the four close and critical reading questions. This was a pretest and the students were not given instruction prior to being asked to respond to the four questions posed. The responses were then evaluated on a 4 point rubric (See rubric page). Below you will find a copy of the article and the results of this assessment follow on the next page. **



Supreme Court to hear violent video games case Calif. sought ban on sale to children  Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV allows gamers to portray carjacking, gun-toting gangsters. (Rockstar Games/Associated Press) By [|Derrik J. Lang] Associated Press /  November 1, 2010 LONG BEACH, Calif. — Before picking up any Wii games or downloading apps on her iPhone for her two daughters, Lillian Quintero does her homework. She’ll first read reviews online and in magazines, then try them out for herself. If she thinks the games are engaging and educational enough, 4-year-old Isabella and 2-year-old Sophia are free to play. “I know there’s going to be a point where they get these things on their own,’’ said the 35-year-old mother from Long Beach. “We’re not going to be there to monitor everything. That’s why the most important thing is communication, instilling morals and values in them, and helping them to understand certain boundaries. There’s only so much you can do.’’ Quintero and her husband, Jorge, are some of the parents who support a California law that seeks to ban the sale and rental of violent games to children. The law, which has bounced around the legal system like a game of Pong since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger first signed it in 2005, was declared unconstitutional last year by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The US Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow about the federal court’s decision to throw out California’s ban on violent games, marking the first time a case involving the interactive medium has gone before the Supreme Court. It’s another sign that the $20 billion-a-year industry, long considered to be just child’s play, is now all grown up. California’s measure would have regulated games more like pornography than movies, prohibiting the sale or rental of games that give players the option of “killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being’’ to anyone under the age of 18. Only retailers would be punished with fines of up to $1,000 for each infraction. The federal court said the law violated minors’ constitutional rights under the First and 14th amendments and the state lacked enough evidence to prove violent games cause physical and psychological harm to minors. Courts in six other states, including Michigan and Illinois, have reached similar conclusions, striking down parallel violent game bans. Under California’s law, only adults would be able to purchase games like Postal 2, the first-person shooter by developer Running With Scissors that features the ability to light unarmed bystanders on fire, and Grand Theft Auto IV, the popular third-person shoot-’em-up from Rockstar Games that allows gamers to portray carjacking, gun-toting gangsters. The Quinteros, like most supporters, believe the law will protect children from buying such violent titles, while gamers and free speech advocates think California’s ban could lead to strict federal regulation on the content of games and other media. All agree, however, that the graphically rich medium has come a long way from 8-bit tennis matches. The average age of gamers is 34, according to the Entertainment Software Association, and many are paying close attention to the Supreme Court case. The Entertainment Consumers Association, which lobbies on behalf of gamers, is organizing a rally outside the Supreme Court building tomorrow as “a way of sending a strong message and uniting gamers.’’ “It’s not so much a video game case as a First Amendment case,’’ said George Rose, chief public policy officer at Activision Blizzard Inc., the Santa Monica-based publisher of the popular Call of Duty and Guitar Hero gaming franchises. The game maker filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing California’s ban, which was never enforced. Other allies in the fight include Xbox manufacturer Microsoft Corp., “Star Wars’’ publisher LucasArts, The Recording Academy, and the Motion Picture Association of America. Opponents of the ban have called the measure unnecessary because virtually all major game publishers and retailers employ a universal voluntary rating system, much like movie studios and theaters, that assigns one of eight age-specific ratings to games, then blocks the sale of games that are rated M for “mature’’ and AO for “adults only’’ to children. The gaming industry has done a better job of preventing minors from buying entertainment not intended for their age group than the music and film industries, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Although the Quinteros believe it’s ultimately up to parents to police games their children play, Lillian and Jorge agree that they would feel more comfortable if violent games were legally off limits from being sold to kids.  “It’s one less way for children to have access to it,’’ said Jorge, a 35-year-old middle school teacher. Close and Critical Reading Questions What does the text say? (Briefly summarize the article.)

How does it say it? In other words, how does the author develop the text to convey his/her purpose? (What are the genre, format, organization, features, etc.?)

What does the text mean? (What message/theme/concept is the author trying to get across?)

So what? (What does the message/theme/concept mean in your life and/or in the lives of others? Why is it worth sharing/telling? What significance does it have to your life and/or to the lives of others?)