AP US Government and Politics--self study?

[Dynamite5]

I'm considering letting my son self study for US Govt and Politics.  I'm looking for folks who have BTDT and who have advice to offer on the choice of our text.  There are so many options on the College Board website; I'd like some advice from those who have walked this path.  

 

TIA!

[Jen in NY]

My dd self-studied this year. She used Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, by Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry. At the beginning of the course she was also reading through American Government: A Complete Coursebook by Ethel Wood, but ran out of time. (Too) near the end she used The Princeton Review Book, and we printed out all the available FRQs (I can e-mail you that file if you'd like) and talked through them... she outlined some that she felt were important. It would not be overstating things for me to say that she didn't put the appropriate amount of work into this course (oy), and she still pulled a 5 on the exam.

 

I have been trying to figure out how this is possible... and a few things that came to mind are that (1) we have been listening to political news on NPR and talk shows like Meet the Press since she was tiny, so maybe her background knowledge bailed her out. Also, (2) it's not her first stroll around the AP Park, so maybe she knew exactly what to expect from that type of exam and was able to put her limited time with the material to good use.

 

It's definitely doable.

 

If it were me, I'd make sure to use the Ethel Wood Coursebook in conjunction with anything else you use. It is concise, well written, and clear. The Edwards et. al. to me seemed wordy and meandering.... but in the end was understandable and I guess covered what she needed to know. Plus, I seem to remember lots of resources on the web to go with it (but we never used them.)

[klmama]

I'm curious about why she dropped the Wood text for the Edwards one, if it was clearer.  Was there important information you felt was missing? 

[Jen in NY]

She chose. I was almost entirely hands off this year for her: we made a schedule, she was to complete it. She mostly pulled it off.

 

To me, the Wood is almost like an outline - though it is a narrative. That's how I like to study - bare bones reminders, I fill in the info.

I'll ask dd why she chose the other when she gets in tonight, though.

[GoodGrief]

My 9th grader self-studied for that one this year, and got a "5" on the exam.  She used the Thinkwell US Govt course, Five Steps to a Five, prep book; also, I believe the Barrons prep book and lots of practice exams.

 

She also attended Close Up DC and did a series of classes on the legal system through our local youth court program, though I'm not sure how much help that was.

[Dynamite5]

Thank you all so much for the information!  I may have to get my hands on 2 or 3 of these books and let him choose.  

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have both the Edwards and Wood books. One thing to know about the Wood book is that it dates from 2000-2002. So it is missing two presidencies, the patriot act, Citizens United, several 2nd amendment cases and many trends in media and elections.

I do like the book but I know for the exam that there will need to be some supplementing.

I'm doing govt in a coop with the goal of taking both ap govt tests. I am putting both Wood and Edwards on the syllabus.

[MomsintheGarden]

Ds took AP US Government this past May (2013) as a 9th grader. I wanted him to study it for the experience of taking a humanities AP, so he could learn more about government since he hadn't studied it in-depth, because it was an election year, and to get more experience outlining and notetaking. To study, he read and outlined the Edwards text, 14th edition. He also read and summarized political articles in two different newpapers, one which is thought to be liberal and one which is thought to be conservative. To prep, he read and answered all the practice and test questions in the Cliffs book (hard) and the test questions in the Kaplan book (easy). He also answered many FRQs from the CB website.

 

He did NOT enjoy his government study. He spent about 2 hours a day, 4 days a week studying and thought it was a real slog - he's rather be programming or doing math. He also put a couple of subjects on hold the two weeks before the AP to focus mostly on government. :) All the prep paid off, though, and he was very thankful to earn a 5. He also studied for the Computer Science AP and enjoyed it, so I'm glad I had him do both.

 

I don't know if I'd recommend the Edwards book or not. It seems to be very, very detailed, so much so that a lot of the big picture gets lost in all of the more obscure facts. It is a huge book and fairly dry. I don't think any book would have been terribly interesting to ds, though! I'd like to hear what others have to say about different options in case one of our younger dc will be doing government. By then I'll need to buy another text because they age out with changing laws and administrations.

 

If anyone wants to buy the Edwards book from me in spite of what I said above, please pm me. :)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

MomsintheGarden,

 

A question about the 14th edition.  I've seen the 15th and the 16th and both of those have vocabulary defined in the side margins.  They also have chapter objectives listed at the beginning of each chapter and clearly marked as you get to them in the chapter.

 

Does the 14th ed have this too?  I have a much older edition and it doesn't have those features.  I was wondering when they were added.

 

[MomsintheGarden]

MomsintheGarden,

 

A question about the 14th edition.  I've seen the 15th and the 16th and both of those have vocabulary defined in the side margins.  They also have chapter objectives listed at the beginning of each chapter and clearly marked as you get to them in the chapter.

 

Does the 14th ed have this too?  I have a much older edition and it doesn't have those features.  I was wondering when they were added.

Sebastian,

 

I have the 14th edition, with ISBN 978-0-205-66289-0, c. 2009 so it's current with this presidential administration. It has vocabulary defined in the side margins as well as in the glossary in the back. There are no chapter objectives listed at the beginning of each chapter, but each has a "Chapter Outline." Each topic listed in the Chapter Outline is prefaced with a red heading in the text. There is also a Summary at the end of each chapter.

 

HTH. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

GardenMom

[TiaTia]

Sebastian-a-Lady, good luck with your AP US Government & Politics co-op class! I'm teaching AP US GOPO this year as a year-long, stand-alone course instead of as a semester followed by comparative. Live kids plus some virtual heads on a screen. Using Edmodo for the first time for classroom management & some extra asynchronous discussion. Loving it already for the AP World History I'm also teaching. Would love to hear more 'bout your class, though probably in a separate thread (apologies to OP).

[ladykayaker]

My son will be studying for AP US Govt this year. 

I have ordered the Edwards 15th.

 

I was considering using NROC as a course outline for him to follow. It gives which pages to read from the text, assignments, highlights key terms, and a multiple choice test at the end of each Chapter. 

 

Has anyone else tried NROC? Any feedback on your experience?

 

[Dynamite5]

My dd self-studied this year. She used Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, by Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry. At the beginning of the course she was also reading through American Government: A Complete Coursebook by Ethel Wood, but ran out of time. (Too) near the end she used The Princeton Review Book, and we printed out all the available FRQs (I can e-mail you that file if you'd like) and talked through them... she outlined some that she felt were important. It would not be overstating things for me to say that she didn't put the appropriate amount of work into this course (oy), and she still pulled a 5 on the exam.

 

I have been trying to figure out how this is possible... and a few things that came to mind are that (1) we have been listening to political news on NPR and talk shows like Meet the Press since she was tiny, so maybe her background knowledge bailed her out. Also, (2) it's not her first stroll around the AP Park, so maybe she knew exactly what to expect from that type of exam and was able to put her limited time with the material to good use.

 

It's definitely doable.

 

If it were me, I'd make sure to use the Ethel Wood Coursebook in conjunction with anything else you use. It is concise, well written, and clear. The Edwards et. al. to me seemed wordy and meandering.... but in the end was understandable and I guess covered what she needed to know. Plus, I seem to remember lots of resources on the web to go with it (but we never used them.)

If the offer still stands, I would love for you to email me the file.  I'll pm you.

 

I've looked up the Ethel Wood Coursebook, and it is $199!  Is that for real?  Is yours for sale?  :-)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

You should be able to get the Ethel Wood American Govt text and teacher guide for about $60 new. There is also an activity book that I haven't read yet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0669467987/ref=aw_2nd_sims_4?pi=SL500_SY115. Teachers' manual

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0669467952/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1375925812&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX110_SY190. Text

[Dynamite5]

You should be able to get the Ethel Wood American Govt text and teacher guide for about $60 new. There is also an activity book that I haven't read yet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0669467987/ref=aw_2nd_sims_4?pi=SL500_SY115. Teachers' manual

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0669467952/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1375925812&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX110_SY190. Text

 

 

But these aren't written by Ethel Wood--the authors are Steck/Vaughn.  

[Sebastian (a lady)]

But these aren't written by Ethel Wood--the authors are Steck/Vaughn.  

 

Actually Steck/Vaughn is a publishing imprint.  The authors of both the text and the Teacher's Guide are Ethel Wood and Stephen Sansone.  Stephen Sansone also wrote an Activity Book that has brief and extended activities keyed to the chapters. (Most envision a large class setting.  Some are easily modified for small groups, like a coop.  Others could be a springboard for a larger modification for single student use - for example writing a position paper or editorial instead of having a debate.)  This is out of print, but available used.  I will be using many of these activities with my coop group.

 

I'm doing class prep this afternoon, so I was able to double check the title pages of the books.  I realize that the listings show Steck/Vaughn as the author, but that is probably an error in submitting the book info to Amazon.

 

I'm not sure why the links above open such odd looking pages.  This is the page I'm looking at for the Teacher's Guide.

[Dynamite5]

Actually Steck/Vaughn is a publishing imprint.  The authors of both the text and the Teacher's Guide are Ethel Wood and Stephen Sansone.  Stephen Sansone also wrote an Activity Book that has brief and extended activities keyed to the chapters. (Most envision a large class setting.  Some are easily modified for small groups, like a coop.  Others could be a springboard for a larger modification for single student use - for example writing a position paper or editorial instead of having a debate.)  This is out of print, but available used.  I will be using many of these activities with my coop group.

 

I'm doing class prep this afternoon, so I was able to double check the title pages of the books.  I realize that the listings show Steck/Vaughn as the author, but that is probably an error in submitting the book info to Amazon.

 

I'm not sure why the links above open such odd looking pages.  This is the page I'm looking at for the Teacher's Guide.

  Thank you so much for taking the time out of your planning to answer my concern!  I appreciate all of your help.  The fact that the listings were wrong was very confusing.  I was worried about getting the wrong thing.  I am grateful for your explanation of the activity book...thanks so much!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

It is a confusing listing. I'm not sure if it was an error putting it onto Amazon, something to do with Steck/Vaughn being an imprint of a larger company or just a desire to emphasize company over author.

 

I can say that I bought the text and teacher guide new from Amazon this year and got the right books (actually the text was newer than the listing indicates). I bought the activity book used and think its a very good resource.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Another resource to consider would be the government track at Hippocampus.org

 

American Government

American Government and Politics for AP

 

I was watching some of the AP course over the weekend.  They look interesting, especially for a student who likes a video component.  I think they would need backed up with current events reading, vocabulary (student made or purchased flashcards), and practice with sample multiple choice and free response questions if being used for AP prep.  There are some questions if you click on the "explore" icons in the right side bare.  Also the text tab gives a text that isn't just a transcript of the video.

 

ETA: If you click on "Launch a Course" it will take you to a page with reading assignments for several texts, key terms (I think the list of terms is too short), writing assignments, and discussion questions (which look a lot like free response questions).  There is also a chapter test (with answer key).

 

ETA: Well drat, the two links go to the same page.  You will need to select the course you want.  Then you can just select the topic you want to review, launch a course or see textbook correlations.

 

 

[FloridaLisa]

The Ethel Wood materials are great because she taught (still teaches?) APUSGov for many years and her book is straight to the point.  Really, I used it as an outline of my teaching.  Most of the text used for APUSGov that I've seen are overly wordy.  FWIW, I think you can skim your study of policy.  I think the Wilson/Dilulio text devotes 4 or 5 chapters on it toward the end.  Know which topics generate the most questions and join the APUSGov teachers listserve.  That alone will give you much information on previous tests and content/approach.

 

Lisa

[Dynamite5]

The Ethel Wood materials are great because she taught (still teaches?) APUSGov for many years and her book is straight to the point.  Really, I used it as an outline of my teaching.  Most of the text used for APUSGov that I've seen are overly wordy.  FWIW, I think you can skim your study of policy.  I think the Wilson/Dilulio text devotes 4 or 5 chapters on it toward the end.  Know which topics generate the most questions and join the APUSGov teachers listserve.  That alone will give you much information on previous tests and content/approach.

 

Lisa

 

 

Lisa

 

Great information! 

 

Thanks everyone, for being so helpful.  Now I've both of my high schoolers taking this course, so your help has been doubly important.

 

Dynamite