Country Review Sheet AP Comparative

Last year I started having my students fill out these country e-sheets for AP Comparative.  I credit the assignment with as one of the reasons why my kids had some great scores last year.  While it is becoming a bit old (2007), this resource is a good starting point after we watch our flipped videos and discuss them.  For my discussion I use the Socratic method and do it in a comparative sense so that the kids are constantly referring back to previous countries we have done.  If you look at the AP Comparative multiple choice and FRQs this is what they do, so it is a good idea to constantly do it in class.  We also constantly refer back to US government so they do not forget that material as well.

Sharing AP Comparative Resources

Wednesday at Fairfax County's social studies in-service Rebecca Small and I are presenting on two AP Comparative items:

• how to prepare for and to grade AP Comparative FRQ questions.   We each graded two different questions this past June and will be sharing our insights.
• why it is important to be an AP grader (here's how to do it) at least once
• we would also like to follow my department mate Wendy Feilen and start sharing AP Comparative resources across the US.  We would like to share tests (first and second chance ones), assignments, flipped videos, PowerPoints, etc.  If you are interested I will need you to fill in this form.  Once I share the folder with you (broken into the EU and six nations as well as tests), I'd ask that you submit at least three items within a month of joining - one of which is a test.  If you are a new teacher to AP Comp - tell me and we'll work on a way around this).  
• If you are in Fairfax, we will be in room 447 during the "C" session on Wednesday.  

#compgov to Expand Your PLC

This June I am excited as I will be grading my third different AP exam - this time with AP Comparative.  But before then I will be using my past posts (and future ones) about AP Comparative government to help me teach my students starting the third week of January.  Another way I will get information is from the hashtag #compgov.  If you are new to Twitter a hashtag is a place where you can ask others questions and/or "store" information which anyone can see later.  For example, one of the AP Comparative leaders is Andrew Conneen.  As soon as I made the post below on Gapfinder, he tagged it to the #compgov hashtag and now even more people can see it.  This blog, the Facebook page for AP Comparative and the hashtag are all ways for you to expand your collaborative learning team - especially if you are like me and are the only AP Comp teacher in the building. 

AP Comparative Study Aids

So my students will finish Iran this coming Monday and take their quiz for part of the class on Wednesday.  But then we will begin our review for both AP US and AP Comparative.  You have already seen the review for AP US below, but here are some of the sites we will use for AP Comparative review:

• Rebecca Small's "Conceptual Terms" which my students all have learned and will review
• Scribd's AP Comparisons.  This is a great site if you want a quick review of major topics such as type of government, corruption, elections, ethnic conflict, social cleavages, and more.  If you look at the right side of the page you will see summaries for each country.  Russia, Iran, China (but not updated for Xi), Nigeria (Mexico and GB not there and EU is really weak)
• Andrew Conneen's students' overview of each country (this is really good, but now two years old so Russia has some changes as does Iran). 
• Ethel Woods' overview of each country (again be warned that this is a few years old)
• Hauss's multiple choice questions from his previous edition
• Quizlet also has some great flashcards.  The best way to search them is to write "AP Comparative Name of country" into the Quizlet search engine.  The top search items is usually quite good. 

AP Comparative Government Blog

This week I am taking a great AP Comparative Government summer institute with one of my county's teachers, Rebecca Small.  One of the things she has highlighted is Ken Wedding's blog for comparative government teachers.  Wedding was a long time AP Comparative Government teacher, AP reader (grader) and author who has retired, but puts up regular items that can help you in your class.  

AP Comparative Government Website

While I am going to add lots of things this spring to my site about comparative government, the definitive site is Ken Wedding's Comparative Government.  Ken was a long time comparative teacher and AP grader.  Going with the post below, for example, here are all his posts on the European Union. 

EU Trade Talks and AP Comparative Issues

I think it will be a couple of years before I completely figure out the issues part of the EU exam.  Consider that there is a new WashPost article on discussing the US need for genetically altered crops and Europe's feelings against it and the problems it may lead to between our nations.  So my question is does this rise to an issue that could rise to the AP Comp exam - probably not yet.  But in asking the question there are a lot of great resources such as all the Economist pages for the EU and each comparative country (GB, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, China, Iran) that Ken Wedding recently posted on his comparative blog.  In short, I have learned, that much more than AP US Government this teacher needs to read lots of articles about all seven of the entities (I include the EU as one of them) constantly to be better prepared for next January when we start the next cycle of AP Comparative - my new favorite subject to teach! 

One Country, Two Systems & AP Comparative Government

So during the AP Comparative portion of our year (which this year will start in the second week of January) we will discuss "issues" for each of the countries we are studying.  As part of these issues, we look at "conceptual terms" which I then add to each country's issues's sheet.  So here is the sheet on China.  Usually I have the students find the resources needed to boil each issue down to 3-4 bullet points, but every once in a while I find an article which is so good I will link it for the kids.

So for example this NYTimes article gives us the back ground on Hong Kong and why it is different than mainland China.  It also links it to Maggie Thatcher who is also fair fodder for the AP Comparative exam.

While we are at it my next book is going to be Strange Rebels which comes highly recommended from a friend and is about 1979 when the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan, Maggie Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping came to power in Great Britain, and the Iranians had their revolution (and yes, there is a part on the new Polish Pope) which means in one book you get half of the comparative countries! 

Connected China

If you use the search engine on this site you can find a number of items for AP Comparative and individually for each country of the course.  Here is a great site called ConnectedPRC that I plan on using this year (we start AP Comparative in January) when we learn about China.  It has great graphics on the institutions of government and brief discussions on how they work.  I found it from a Google+ post from AP Comparative guru Ken Wedding. 

My Entire US Government & Comparative Government Courses

I put my entire AP US Government and Comparative Government course (both as a stand alone US or as a double - both of which I teach) course right here.  The link has all of the videos that I will be using next year (since next year I will not be using a book for either class).  If you find this link at all helpful and you hang onto it, you will see that I do make changes during the year (esp. in comparative where I am doing more tinkering).  So have at it, and if you can give me suggestions, please do. 

Great AP Comp Websites

Ken Wedding is the author of AP Comparative Government and Politics which is the best (in my humble opinion) study aide on the market and written by a former AP Comparative (but still very active) high school teacher.

Ken also has a great blog (link fixed) that I like to use to help me teach.  For example several days ago he did a post on the cleavages on Nigeria.

My favorite site for review is Andrew Coneen's class wiki that his students created to give you all of the main points for each of the six comparative countries as well as the EU.  It also includes maps, pictures, etc.  

Studying for the AP US Government Exam

May 14th is a big  day in my classes as my AP Government students are taking their AP exam and my AP Comparative students are taking both exams (thankfully in 2014 the exams will be on different days).

• To prepare them for the exam we have already given them a ton of previously released AP exam questions.  I actually encourage the students to talk about the questions with each other (could I really stop them from not doing so).  Every year I find that most kids do about the same as they do on my tests (percentage wise), but some of the kids who really work hard improve and some of the lazy ones go down. 
• Then I give them Rebecca Small's 100 questions. I don't ask them to do the court cases since they will have just taken a test on them.  
•  Since my AP Comparative students have already (back in January) completed the questions, they will have to complete a lot of this lengthy review. I also give a "final test" before the actual AP consisting of 60 multiple choice and two free response questions.   After years of teaching I know seniors are more likely to care about the test than the AP exam so know this will get them to study for both.  
• Finally we will go over my tips for the AP exam itself.   I have been teaching AP Government for I believe 13 years and grading them for 11 or 12 so I think my tips are fairly useful.  I haven't yet developed them for the AP Comparative exam, but it is fairly similar except for the free response portion which I will add to in a few days. 

Comparing China and Russia in AP Comparative

If you look at the free response questions from the AP Comparative exam, you will see lots of questions that compare two of the six countries that are being studied in the class.  That is why I like this article looking at why Xi should envy Putin so much.  Obviously both China and Russia are on the test and it really covers so many topics in AP Comparative: Russia's annexation Crimea, Cold War, geography, regional groups, trade between the two countries and economic reforms.  This article could be used as an assignment in of itself or be a take off point for a classroom assignment.  

Comparative Government Website

Yesterday I did two different in-services, one of which I mentioned in a post below. One of the questions was is there a website for comparative government. YES! Kenn Wedding was a long time comparative government teacher and AP Reader before he retired. However, don't let the word retirement fool you as he is quite active on his blog site and if you want a great resource, you should check it out here.

AP Comparative Wiki

I just found this AP Comparative Wiki which is really pretty remarkable as it has almost everything you'd want for each of the countries, including history, government, issues and even pictures.  My students are going to be using it for review. It is made by Andrew Coneen who has done work on the  AP Comparative test committee(ie, trust that it is a great resource).
 

Gapminder for AP Comparative Government

Thanks to Ken Wedding for a post on the AP Comparative Government Facebook page for the information on Gapminder which lets you see a nation's per capita income over time or in one snapshot.  Above and here are the six AP Comparative nations as well as the US from 1800 to the present (which is a real trick since I am assuming it counted Iran as Persia during part of that period!). 

Mexico Pages for AP Comparative

I assume you can see the order we are following in AP Comparative this year.  We will hit Mexico next week.  Here is a great page from the NYTimes on all things including drugs and here is a page exclusively devoted to the drug war.  Each has a summary in the upper left.

If you go to the Mexico Blogrunner page, you can get even more articles on Mexico from a variety of news sources and more importantly ones on the US-Mexico border issue.

Next, above is short video on the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto who just this year returned the PRI party to the presidency after twelve years of PAN executive rule. 

Now no comparative class would be complete without the Economist and if you go here, you will find their page on Mexico. 

Review for the AP US Government Exam

We are having our final test this week and then will spend all of next week going over it.  My AP Comparative students had their test back in mid January so their review is different than the AP US Government students.

• Comprehensive review sheet.  I no longer know where I found this, but it goes to the AP Comparative students.  They only do the parts they do not know as it is too long to do otherwise.  Mostly it is a way for them to remember items we may not have thought about during our comparative journey.
• Frank Franz and Randy Smith's review of the released multiple choice exam questions which really is a good study guide as well. 
• One hundred question review.  I got this from a Rebecca Small in-service years ago and break it up into four days.  The problem we have had is that kids have only used a few words or a line to answer the questions.  This year we broke up an old AP exam into four parts and let the students use their answers on it.  Magically the students were much more thorough in their answers! 
• Barron's AP Government review guide.  I feel the summaries and the multiple choice questions (the essays are not in line with the real free response ones).  All year my students have done mc questions and been using the summaries as a review guide.  You also could use Quizlet questions, but know that you should vet them to pick the best ones. 
• Time permitting we also give them some old AP free response questions. 
• Finally we briefly go through my AP exam test tips.

AP Comparative Group on Facebook

The unstoppable Ken Wedding (who retired a few years ago, but still continues to be a force in AP Comparative Government with his blog and his books) has created a Facebook group for AP Comparative which has 450 members and is one more great resource to find ideas and ask questions.  I might add that when I started teaching I hounded Wedding as he is very receptive to questions and loves to help.   

AP US Government Review

Next week we finish AP Comparative and then pursue our review of US and comp in earnest.  Below are some of the items we use to study for the exam.

• Comprehensive review sheet.  I no longer know where I found this, but it goes to the AP Comparative students.  They only do the parts they do not know as it is too long to do otherwise.  Mostly it is a way for them to remember items we may not have thought about during our comparative journey.
• Frank Franz and Randy Smith's review of the released multiple choice exam questions which really is a good study guide as well. 
• One hundred question review.  I got this from a Rebecca Small in-service years ago and break it up into four days.  The problem we have had is that kids have only used a few words or a line to answer the questions.  This year we broke up an old AP exam into four parts and let the students use their answers on it.  Magically the students were much more thorough in their answers! 
• Barron's AP Government review guide.  I feel the summaries and the multiple choice questions (the essays are not in line with the real free response ones).  All year my students have done mc questions and been using the summaries as a review guide.  You also could use Quizlet questions, but know that you should vet them to pick the best ones. 
• Time permitting we also give them some old AP free response questions. 
• Finally we briefly go through my AP exam test tips.
• If you prefer review videos, up top is part one of seven (the rest of which you can find here).  Here is another set.  If you want a shorter review, there is a fourteen minute below.