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AP United States Government and Politics
Course Description
AP U.S. Government and Politics is a college-level year-long course that not only seeks to prepare students for success on the AP Exam in May, but also provide students with the political knowledge and reasoning processes to participate meaningfully and thoughtfully in discussions and debates that are currently shaping American politics and society. It is important to note that this course is not a history course; it is a political science course that studies the interconnectedness of the different parts of the American political system and the behaviors and attitudes that shape this system and are the byproduct of this system.
AP U.S. Government and Politics accomplishes these goals by framing the acquisition of political knowledge around enduring understandings and big ideas about American government and politics that can be applied to a set of disciplinary practices through the use of a set of reasoning processes. Through the development of this set of political knowledge, disciplinary practices, and reasoning processes, by the end of the course, students will be able to analyze current and historical political events like a political scientist and develop factually accurate, well-reasoned, thoughtful arguments, and opinions that acknowledge and grapple with alternative political perspectives.
Course Content and Big Ideas
The course will be organized around the following units of study:
Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy
Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government
Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs
Unit 5: Political Participation
The course content consists of the essential political knowledge that will be synthesized in the construction of enduring understandings and big ideas about American government and politics. The big ideas that connect the content in the course units include:
• Constitutionalism
• Liberty and Order
• Civic Participation in a Representative Democracy
• Competing Policy-Making Interests
• Methods of Political Analysis
Reasoning Processes
The reasoning processes are the thought processes that will facilitate connection-making and analysis in the pursuit of effectively executing the disciplinary practices in the course. In other words, the reasoning processes form the cognitive bridge between the course content/big ideas and the disciplinary practices. The reasoning processes in this course include:
• Definition/Classification: Demonstrating knowledge of course concepts
• Explain - Process: Explaining political processes
• Explain - Causation: Explaining causes and effects of political principles, institutions, processes, and behaviors
• Explain - Comparison: Explaining similarities and differences among political principles, institutions, processes, and behaviors
Disciplinary Practices
The disciplinary practices are the tasks students will apply to the course content using the reasoning processes. Becoming proficient in these disciplinary practices gives students the tools to analyze political information, regardless of the format, and develop a factually accurate, thoughtful, and well-reasoned argument or opinion about an issue related to American government and politics. The disciplinary practices in this course include:
• Practice 1: Apply political concepts and processes to scenarios in context
• Practice 2: Apply Supreme Court decisions
• Practice 3: Analyze and interpret quantitative data represented in tables, charts, graphs, maps, and infographics
• Practice 4: Read, analyze, and interpret foundational documents and other text-based and visual sources
• Practice 5: Develop an argument in essay format
Every AP Exam question fuses course content, reasoning processes, and disciplinary practices. Thus, in-class and outside of class assignments will focus on the acquisition of course content and the application of course content to disciplinary practices using reasoning skills.
In addition to content-based knowledge and skills, this curriculum integrates the skills, knowledge, and expertise of the NJSLS Standard 8, Technological Literacy, and NJSLS Standard 9, 21st Century Life and Careers. Twenty-first Century Learning, when used in combination with standards-based content, ensures that students are prepared for success in today’s challenging environment. In this course, students will concentrate on big ideas that encompass core principles and theories of American government and politics. Students will also focus on developing skills such as examining primary and secondary sources, working individually and as a member of a group, communicating ideas clearly, and utilizing technology for learning and disseminating ideas effectively. The course also prepares students for informed participation in our constitutional democracy.
Textbook:
Magleby, David B., Paul C. Light, and Christine L. Nemacheck. Government by the People. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The primary text will be heavily supplemented by outside readings, including the fifteen required Supreme Court cases and nine foundational documents which will all be assigned during the course. In addition to the required cases and documents, recent articles regarding political science concepts and current political issues will be provided to students to supplement the primary text. Links to the supplemental readings will be posted to the course Google Classroom or provided to students in hard copy.
This course will incorporate the analysis of the following fifteen required Supreme Court cases:
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• Schenck v. United States (1919)
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Baker v. Carr (1961)
• Engel v. Vitale (1962)
• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
• New York Times Company v. United States (1971)
• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Shaw v. Reno (1993)
• United States v. Lopez (1995)
• McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) (2010)
Students will be required to complete multiple assignments analyzing and comparing these cases with other non-required cases.
Also, the list above is not an exhaustive list of the Supreme Court cases that will be analyzed and discussed in this course. Students will research many other cases, particularly precedents or related cases to the core fifteen cases.
In addition, students will be responsible for understanding and being able to apply the content of the following key primary documents:
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Articles of Confederation
• Federalist No. 10
• Brutus No. 1
• Federalist No. 51
• The Constitution of the United States
• Federalist No. 70
• Federalist No. 78
• “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• Excerpts from Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government to go along with the analysis of the Declaration of Independence
• “Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican I” to go along with the analysis of the Articles of Confederation
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