Civics & AP Government

Hi everyone! I'm a history teacher in Cheshire CT. It my third year teaching and hopefully (if I survive this years budget season!) I will be teaching AP US Government and Politics for the first time at our school.  I have taught our regular civics curriculum for two years but AP is new to me and to our school. I'm hoping to get ideas and advice from others who have taught the class that I can use as I form my Syllabus.

 

In the past my co-worker and I have made Civics pop! by working V For Vendetta into our curriculum on the purpose and foundations of government the kids love it and I love getting to watch one of my favorite movies with them.

I also use V for Vendetta ... it is very timely considering how the revolts in the Middle East are unfolding.  How do you premise the film?  What are the key ideas you emphasize?  I tend to focus on the idea of anarchy and compare its use in the film to the very different way it is portrayed in the graphic novel.  I'm interested in how you use it.

We don't have the resources to have the students read the graphic novel unfortunately so I can't get them to compare.  We use it during the formation of American government section of the class, usually between the declaration of independence and Constitution.   We look at as what is the purpose of government in society? Should we embrace freedom or security?  The idea of should governments be afraid of their people or people afraid of their government and also try to tie in Hobbes and Locke's ideas of government.

 

Then I have them respond to this question:

During the American Revolution many leading thinkers made statements to inspire revolution and change.  Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.”  Thomas Paine stated, “We have it in our power to begin the world again.”  Connect these two statements to both the messages of the movie V for Vendetta and our study of the origins of American government and constitutional reform.

 

We also did an awesome bulletin board where we had the students make paper V masks and everyone took a picture with their mask on and we made our own mob like from the end of the movie. It came out awesome and we got so many compliments from other staff members.

 

Its one of my favorite things we do in Civics and I've missed doing it this year not teaching the class.  But I will definitely be doing it in my AP class next year it just might not be in the same place in the year.