Presidential Election Update American Government: Stories of a Nation

What’s in the Update?
As you might expect from a “Presidential Election Updated Edition,” all portions referencing the U.S. President have been updated to reflect the 2020 election information. Moreover, AP®-style questions have been updated to keep pace with changes to the exam format. In addition, some of the stories that frame each chapter have been updated to reflect recent events, for instance, the story in Chapter 7 has been revised to discuss the response of the federal bureaucracy to the Covid-19 pandemic.

What Continues?
Meticulously Aligned to the AP® U.S. Government and Politics Course. Aligning with course pedagogy like Big Ideas and Essential Knowledge statements, this book adheres to the concepts of the College Board’s redesigned course. Each book unit corresponds to the same unit in the course framework. We’ve kept the coverage brief and targeted to make the book and your course more manageable for you and your students.

Simple Modular Organization. Pacing your AP® U.S. Government and Politics Course can be very challenging with so many concepts and skills to teach, usually in only a single semester. To help, we have segmented chapters into 67 sections guided by learning targets. Each section serves as a discrete instructional module—just enough for a single day’s lesson to deliver content, skills, assignments, and assessments in a brief easy-to-use “chunk.” Whether you are a veteran teacher, or just taking on this course as part of your teaching load, these modules will save you hours of planning time.

Integrated AP® Political Science Practices Features. Each chapter includes 2-3 special features to enhance students’ mastery of the course’s Political Science Disciplinary Practices and Reasoning Processes. Each includes instruction, modeling, and practice in the AP® style.

Integrated Public Policy Coverage. Most traditional books relegate public policy to discrete, separate chapters, but the new AP® course integrates policy throughout. In accord with the new course organization, Election Update: American Government: Stories of a Nation for the AP® Course incorporates public policy.  This approach highlights how public policy functions as the application of principles taught in each chapter and how public policies are implemented.

Integrated AP® Exam Practice. At the end of every section, chapter, and unit, you will find AP®-style practice items—multiple choice questions, free response questions, and argumentation questions—that conform to the redesigned AP® exam. These textbook’s questions were written and vetted by AP® teachers deeply familiar with the format of the exam.

Meaningful, Focused Work on the Required Court Cases. The College Board chose fifteen required U.S. Supreme Court cases to highlight the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution and Bill of Rights. In Election Update: American Government: Stories of a Nation for the AP® Course, chapters that align with particular cases introduce a deep reading of the case, point out the importance of the case to the AP® course, and assess students’ knowledge. Argumentation questions introduce pertinent cases and ask students to articulate a thesis, use the cases as evidence, and write an essay.

Deeper Understanding of the Foundational Documents. The revised course focuses on foundational documents like the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This book leads students carefully through those foundational documents, quoting them extensively, and summarizing their arguments. In addition to multiple-choice and free-response practice, your students will also learn how to use the foundational documents as evidence in the model argumentation questions where they get practice writing an essay in the style of the new AP® Exam.

A supplemental document reader containing required foundational documents and court cases is also available.

Critical Thinking Assignments to Extend Learning. To add some fun and interesting ideas for taking your class beyond the exam, this book includes Critical Thinking Assignments at the end of each chapter and unit to prompt students to engage with the course concepts in novel and creative ways.

Engaging Narratives That Bring Abstract Concepts to Life. Election Update: American Government: Stories of a Nation for the AP® Course puts an emphasis on practical applications by starting each chapter with a story from the real world showing how the principles of government have real effects that impact real people.

Complete Package to Support Your Instruction. This book comes with a wrap-around Teacher’s Edition, written by veteran AP® teachers and College Board® consultants, who know the course and know the students.

The Teacher’s Resource Materials include everything you need to support your teaching and your students’ learning.  You’ll find it all in the TRM (available as a flash drive, or as resources in the e-book).

The Foundational Documents and Court Cases Reader includes all of the documents and cases required by the College Board®, as well as some frequently taught works that go beyond the course framework. Each document is accompanied by commentary and guided questions, to help students understand these complex texts.