AP United States Government and Politics

Starting in the 2023-24 school year, AP U.S. Government and Politics will have an updated course framework and instructional materials.

AP Classroom

Whether you’re teaching in person or online, these free, flexible online resources can keep your class on pace throughout the year.

AP Classroom

Sign in to AP Classroom and explore these resources:

AP Daily videos are short, searchable instructional segments you can:

• assign to students before or after class to maximize time for discussion.
• assign alongside topic questions to address misunderstandings.
• encourage students to take advantage of on their own, on mobile devices or computers.
• track to see which students are watching each video in each class.

Topic questions are formative questions to check student understanding as you teach. Assign topic questions to reveal student misunderstandings and target your lessons.

Progress checks help you gauge student knowledge and skills for each unit through:

• multiple-choice questions with rationales explaining correct and incorrect answers, and
• free-response questions with scoring guides to help you evaluate student work.

My Reports highlights progress for every student and class across AP units.

The question bank is a searchable database of real AP questions. You can:

• find topic questions and practice exam questions, indexed by content and skills.
• search for any question, passage, or stimulus by text or keyword.
• create custom quizzes that can be assigned online or on paper.

AP Daily

• Made for any learning environment, AP teachers can assign these short videos on every topic and skill as homework alongside topic questions, warm-ups, lectures, reviews, and more.
• AP students can also access videos on their own for additional support.
• Videos are available in AP Classroom, on your Course Resources page.

AP Daily Instructors

Expert AP teachers across the country can support your course virtually:

• Lead teacher: Jenifer Hitchcock, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va.
• Michelle Briscoe-Greene, Suncoast Community High School, Riviera Beach, Fla.
• Janette Sierra, Pinecrest Preparatory Middle-High School, Miami, Fla.
• Sam Biglari, The Galloway School, Atlanta, Ga.
• Ashley Vascik, Boonsboro High School, Boonsboro, Md.

Higher Education Faculty Lecturers

Supplement your instruction with 30-minute videos on each unit hosted by college or university professors. Guest lecturers include:

• Howard Ernst, United States Naval Academy
• Eric McDaniel, University of Texas at Austin
• Stephen Meinhold, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
• D'Andra Orey, Jackson State University

The Faculty Lectures are available on the AP Classroom Course Resources page, under Overview, as well as YouTube.

Additional Resources for AP U.S. Government and Politics

These materials were developed before the 2023-24 course updates, but they still provide relevant information about teaching AP U.S. Government and Politics.

Voter Turnout Lesson Plan (from the Civic Knowledge and Action Initiative)

While voting plays a critical role in a healthy republic, many Americans do not take
advantage of this civic right. A variety of structural and cultural variables may
contribute to this paradox. Data analysis is a method employed by political scientists
to understand why this discrepancy exists. In this lesson, students will examine data
related to registration and voting. It’s important for students to understand why the
inconsistencies in voting exist and if there are ways to correct these issues through
civic engagement.

Both teacher and student instructional materials are found in AP Classroom under Topic 5.2 Voter Turnout.

Analytical Reading Activities

College Board has developed a suite of analytical reading activities for AP U.S. Government and Politics teachers.

The Analytical Reading Activities were developed by a team of master teachers to help you teach the nine required documents and implement the AP U.S. Government and Politics course skills in your classroom.

The following features make these activities valuable and flexible resources for teachers and students:

• Paired readings have students practice analyzing other primary sources, news articles, and scholarly works by political scientists.
• Before, during, and after reading exercises help students connect the text to course content.
• Guided questions appear alongside the paragraphs to help students analyze as they go, modeling proven approaches for student understanding.
• Making connections with summative exercises guide students in connecting both readings to our government today.

These activities were designed to guide students in how to properly read, analyze, and annotate a text. And with the emphasis on multiple founding documents, students gain vital practice with complex and college-level readings that political scientists use in their work.

Log in to AP Classroom to access both the student and teacher versions of the following activities:

1. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 1.1: Ideals of Democracy
   Required Document: excerpts from The Declaration of Independence
2. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 1.3: Government Power and Individual Rights
   Required Documents: excerpts from Federalist 10 & excerpts from Brutus 1
3. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 1.4: Challenges of the Articles of Confederation
   Required Document: excerpts from Articles of Confederation
4. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 1.6: Principles of American Government
   Required Document: excerpts from Federalist 51
5. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 1.8: Constitutional Interpretations of Federalism
   Required Document: The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
6. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 2.6: The Expansion of Presidential Power
   Required Document: excerpts from Federalist 70
7. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 2.8: The Judicial Branch
   Required Document: excerpts from Federalist 78
8. Analytical Reading Activity Topic 3.10: Social Movements and Equal Protection
   Required Document: excerpts from Letter from a Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Lessons Developed with the National Constitution Center

These lessons provide teachers and students with a framework to broadly explore concepts and connections between those concepts that span more than one topic.

Federalism, the Commerce Clause, and the Tenth Amendment:

The Constitution includes language that can be interpreted as supporting a nation-centered view of federalism and other areas that one could argue support a state-centered perspective. In order to help students develop a deeper understanding of the role of federalism, this lesson module uses the National Constitution Center's Interactive Constitution, which presents diverse interpretations of constitutional language, particularly that found in the enumerated powers of Article I, Section 8 and in the Tenth Amendment. Students read and analyze these diverse interpretations and draw conclusions about how federalism has been understood and implemented over time. The Leader's Notes (.pdf/1.43MB) and Student Handbook (.pdf/891KB) are available for your use.

The Development and Application of the First Amendment:

This lesson focuses on the First Amendment, its origins, and how it has been interpreted. Using Writing Rights: The Bill of Rights, the National Constitution Center’s interactive website, students trace the origins of the First Amendment in order to deepen their understanding of the rights it protects. Students then investigate and discuss how the Supreme Court has interpreted and applied the amendment to different conflict scenarios in landmark cases. The Leader’s Notes (.pdf/1.27MB) and Student Handbook (.pdf/924KB) are available for your use.