APPARTS was developed by the Social Studies Vertical Teams Committee of the College Board to promote equity and access to Advanced Placement courses. By the mid-1990s, the College Board committed itself to the elimination of gate-keeping strategies for entry into AP courses, believing that many underserved students could benefit from a more rigorous curriculum. Contingent on the success of those students was earlier exposure to rigorous academic work from middle school on. As a result, the College Board developed a series of pre-AP initiatives designed to foster better preparation for challenging courses. One of those was the Social Studies Vertical Teams Guide.

The original Social Studies Vertical Teams Guide was divided into five sections:

• Improving Student Comprehension: Primary Sources
• Improving Student Comprehension: Secondary Sources
• Synthesizing Information: Categorization, Generalization, and Evaluation
• Preparing Students for Assessment
• Tying It All Together

Several Advanced Placement Social Studies exams require students to analyze primary source documents and write an essay known as the Document-Based Question (DBQ). With that in mind, the Social Studies Vertical Team Committee generated a strategy which would allow students to more closely analyze primary source documents and more effectively use the essence of those documents in their essays. Thus APPARTS was born.

APPARTS is designed to get students to focus on key elements of the document and to evaluate the relative importance of these elements in affecting the reliability of this document. Those elements are:

• Author: Students should look closely at who authored the piece. What do they know about the author that would affect the reliability of the document? Are they aware of any bias the author might possess which would color the account? In AP World and AP European history, point-of-view factors heavily in the grading of the DBQ.
• Place and Time: When and where was the source produced, and how might this affect the meaning of the document? If time and place is not given in the source, are there clues within the document as to the time and place of origin?
• Prior Knowledge: Based on the author and time and place of the source, what additional knowledge can a student trigger from this document? An example might be a document from John C. Calhoun which doesn’t mention nullification. A student might know that John C. Calhoun authored the South Carolina Exposition and Protest which espoused the compact theory of government and the possibility of nullification. A political cartoon might have drawings of an elephant and donkey. Can the student determine what those symbols represent?
• Audience: Who was the source created for, and how might this affect the reliability of the document? Would we anticipate that Richard Nixon would say the same things to his advisors in the Oval Office concerning the Watergate break-in that he would in a radio address to the American people? Why would Franklin Roosevelt say, "Your boys are not going to be sent to any foreign wars?"
• Reason: Why was this document produced at the time and place it was? Prior knowledge, time and place, author, audience all factor in to a student being able to determine reason. Why would Andrew Jackson says, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it" in 1832? Why would Joseph Keppler draw the anti-immigration restriction cartoon "Looking Backward" in 1893?
• Main Idea: What is the point the document is trying to make? It is essential that students be able to synthesize the information in the source and express it in a single sentence, rather than simply paraphrasing or directly quoting the document.
• Significance: On the Advanced Placement exam, students are always asked to examine documents relative to a specific question. In the Significance component of APPARTS, students must ask themselves the question, "How and why does this document support my thesis?" The AP Vertical Teams Guide suggests that students ask themselves, "So what?"

The purpose of APPARTS is to develop student skills which will enhance their ability to use primary source documents as evidence in analytical essays. Ideally, APPARTS should be introduced in a pre-AP setting (middle school) well before students encounter their first Advanced Placement class.

APPARTS is not a test-taking strategy. Document-Based Questions on the Advanced Placement exams allow students only 15 minutes to read and analyze somewhere between eight to 12 documents. There is no time to go through the APPARTS process. Therefore, APPARTS must have become, in the words of the AP Social Studies Vertical Teams Guide, "a habit of mind." Student must have had enough practice so that it has become an intuitive part of examining documents.

We are not aware of any research done on the use of the APPARTS strategy, but we hope that this information about its origins is helpful. The literature that addresses historical reading and asking questions of text may be useful—please explore Research Briefs.

Having just bought an iPad, I was eager to investigate your question. Given the combination of rich historical archives and resources on the Web and the growing use of the iPad and other tablet devices, I can imagine a new kind of textbook, one that facilitates teachers guiding students in historical investigations and problem-solving.

Students could encounter and annotate primary and secondary sources, watch video, use graphic organizers to organize evidence and information, and listen to stirring speeches and dynamic lectures. They could look at Thomas Jefferson’s desk and compare, on a single screen, a draft of the Declaration of Independence (both a picture and transcribed version) with the final document. When they needed additional background information, they could click buttons to access narratives, timelines, maps, and vocabulary. A textbook that uses contemporary technological capabilities could include tools for collaborative work where students virtually discuss sources or plan multimedia presentations. In other words, I sought out textbooks that harnessed the potential of the web to facilitate historical inquiry and argument in K–12 classrooms. But after some exploring and trial runs, I would have to say that this possibility, where digital textbooks also mean better textbooks, is still unrealized. Digital textbooks do currently provide things that typical print ones do not. For example, students can write in their books, annotating text and taking notes. Publishers tell us that they will be able to update content more quickly, keeping better pace with recent scholarship. Educators see potential in the digital for making textbooks more accessible for special needs students and in ideas like e-learning portfolios. Teachers are using apps to harness the power of the iPad, or doing what one pair of teachers calls "D.I.Y digital textbooking." Below are some of the currently available textbooks and educator-created resources.

Net_texts.com is a group working under a Creative Commons license to develop open access course units with “texts” (includes images, videos, and websites). Teachers can create their own customized course, or modify and use what others have already created. Currently only a few history courses exist. Unit “chapters” consist of a list of resources and include both written texts and embedded images and documents from other open-content providers such as the Library of Congress or National Archives. Perusing these resources can be cumbersome and the lists can feel disjointed, but this resource is worth checking out. [FREE] CK-12, a nonprofit foundation, is creating “flexbooks,” and has mostly generated textbooks for STEM disciplines, but they also offer an open-access U.S. History textbook. You can download particular chapters and create a customized book. Each chapter includes primary and secondary sources and questions for analyzing those sources. The centrality of sources to these books is more evocative of college texts than your typical K–12 book, but some users will still need a synthetic narrative, something not provided here. (These sources and questions are from the open-access Reading Like a Historian curriculum from the Stanford History Education Group.) [FREE] For more open-access U.S. history textbooks, all of which offer a narrative, see here. [FREE] Also see the Hippocampus project, produced by the Monterey Institute of Technology and Education, to find organized resources that can either be used as a textbook or accompany an existing textbook. [FREE for individuals] Flatworldknowledge.com also currently offers one open-licensed U.S. history textbook and one U.S. government textbook. Both books are designed for college-level courses and users pay for supplementary materials to the text. [FREE] Inkling, a for-profit company, has a few history and civics textbooks. Both of the currently available U.S. history books start with high-quality college-level textbooks and add some new features made possible by tablet devices. For example, hear Eric Foner in “author insight” podcasts for this version of Give Me Liberty: An American History or have students do review questions for a chapter in Experience History: Interpreting America’s Past, a textbook that includes material from J.W. Davidson and M. H. Lytle’s After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection. Inkling also publishes a popular civics textbook by Thomas E. Patterson. Download the Inkling app to review a sample chapter from one of these books. [Must PAY to use additional chapters] The big textbook publishing companies are no doubt looking to enter this market. (Inkling is a collaborative between McGraw Hill and Pearson). Look for those products to be rolled out soon. Publishers like Bedford St. Martin’s (History Class) and the Social Studies School Service (Active Classroom) have already created flexible platforms to design and publish your own books or course of study. [Must PAY to use this resource] However, given the exciting work being done by educators to use iPads to support quality teaching and learning, it’s likely that they will be the ones who will really show the textbook companies what can be done with an iPad. Browse the following links to see some of this exciting work.

See Joe Jolen’s blog on teachers and students creating e-books. Read Glenn Wiebe’s guide on getting started with iPads and using them effectively in the classroom. See here for edtechteacher’s extensive list of ways to use iPads in the classroom, complete with video tutorials and helpful apps.

Unlike most history textbooks, Joy Hakim’s A History of US, has a single narrative voice and tells a clear story. It is, however, targeted at a lower reading level than you may have in mind. One straightforward solution is to look for a college-level textbook. Works like The American Nation or The American Spirit are designed for an advanced high school or college-level audience. If you do decide to go this route, remember that there are downsides to relying on textbooks. Check out our resources on Teaching with Textbooks for some good tips on how to navigate this terrain. Another option is a digital textbook. There are several good choices available online, but the real upside here is that you’ll have the ability to pick and choose from them as you see fit. A good place to start this exploration is with our answer to the question “Do you know of any good online U.S. History textbooks?” A third option is to cobble together your own materials. This isn’t as hard as it may seem, and it will allow you to go as deep as you wish into historical materials. To start, you might rely upon a textbook, digital or otherwise, for an outline. But you’ll lean heaviest on primary documents—the use of which will allow you to investigate historical questions the way historians do. There are millions of free, high-quality primary sources located in online repositories like the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection, all searchable and organized by topic. (Also see this entry that lists more useful collections.) There are also hundreds of topic-specific sites that you can search through our website. Finally, if you’re looking for something in print, there are several good document readers available for purchase, like The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, edited by David Brion Davis and Steven Mintz, or Richard Hofstadter’s Great Issues in American History—a three-volume set that covers 1584–1981. Make sure to browse our resources for using primary sources and you may find this entry particularly useful. Don’t forget to check out our lesson plan reviews section to find some great (and free) online resources. Of course, if you want prepared curriculum that spans the traditional U.S. history course, there are some choices available. The Annenberg Foundation offers an online course—America’s History in the Making—that includes video, online text, and activities. HippoCampus, a project of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, also offers a full course in U.S. History, as well as a course designed for students planning to take the Advanced Placement test. Each comes with multimedia lessons, readings and resources, and assignments like document-based questions and map activities. Please let us know how things turn out.

My first suggestion is that you look for outstanding curriculum, not just outstanding textbooks. I have seen most government textbooks gather dust on classroom shelves, while there is a host of interactive government curriculum that engages students in problem solving, group work, research, and exploration of major themes.

One approach to curriculum adoption is to use the leading experiential programs to create your own curriculum, rather than use a textbook as its centerpiece. This is what I have done over 10 years teaching high school government, while my class set of Magruder's American Government textbooks stays mostly on the shelf. The programs I recommend below all actively involve students in collaborative learning, research, public speaking, deliberation, and other skills that good citizens must have. These programs have strong content but also require a level of activity that is absent in the traditional textbook approach to civic education. Most state civics standards are weighted heavily toward learning about the history and principles of the U.S. Constitution and the operation of our federal government. Most state standards also include learning about state and local government, citizen participation in government, foreign policy, and the government's role in the economy. I recommend the following project-based experiential curriculum to address each of those standards individually.

The best curriculum for teaching the history and principles of the U.S. Constitution is We the People...the Citizen and the Constitution, published by the Center for Civic Education. Available at elementary, middle, and high school reading levels, this textbook presents the Constitution through its historical context and philosophical foundations rather than as a series of facts to be memorized. The culminating activity associated with the We the People curriculum is a simulated Congressional hearing, in which students grapple with big questions about our form of government and defend their answers before a panel of experts. See students answering questions at the national finals here. While Congressional funding for this and other civic education programs was recently eliminated, the curriculum is still available for purchase, and many states will continue to hold hearings and offer professional development. Contact your state coordinator to inquire about the We the People program in your area.

The CHOICES program at Brown University produces an outstanding and engaging unit for evaluating U.S. foreign policy alternatives. The U.S. Role in a Changing World consists of background readings, optional learning activities, and a culminating activity in which students simulate a U.S. Senate Committee Hearing and deliberate four alternative "futures" for the United States' role in the world. Also check out the other fine resources produced by CHOICES.

The Center for Civic Education also publishes the We the People...Project Citizen curriculum. Project Citizen is the leading program for getting students directly involved in state and local government. Far from a textbook, Project Citizen is a brief manual that students and teachers use to analyze public policy problems and propose realistic policy solutions. The culminating activity is a showcase in which students present their portfolios to a panel of experts and policymakers. Here is a video overview of Project Citizen.

Finally, I recommend supplementing your government curriculum with online resources. The following websites provide free interactive activities to enhance your teaching. Street Law hosts the Landmark Supreme Court Cases site, which provides resources for teaching about the most important cases through moot courts and other interactive strategies. Budget Hero is a fun way for students to understand the federal budget. The Center on Congress hosts interactive learning modules on the role of Congress. C-SPAN classroom provides "Timely Teachable Videos," "Constitution Clips," and lesson plans based on C-SPAN's deep well of video archives. IDEAlog presents an interactive approach to understanding political ideologies.

Among traditional high school government textbooks, Magruder's American Government is a good bet. This high school textbook presents a comprehensive explanation of every major topic that is addressed in a government class, including the Constitution, foreign policy, economics, local government, and comparative government. To help teachers differentiate instruction and provide accessible content to English language learners and students with special needs, Magruder’s now offers a "Foundation Series" textbook. This book is designed for students reading at the 6th-grade level, yet it is aligned with the traditional high school reading level textbook. Magruder's also offers the "Experience It!" hands-on curriculum "for teachers looking for an experiential approach to American Government that focuses on simulations and online learning." Magruder's textbooks are not cheap, at about $85 per student edition, but if you want a traditional comprehensive government textbook as the core of your curriculum and have the budget to support it, it's a good place to start. Government Alive!, published by the Teachers' Curriculum Institute, provides a more interactive yet comprehensive approach to government. You can get a free trial and sample chapters on request. When reviewing textbooks I ask myself the following questions: Is it engaging for students to read? Does it address all the standards for my course? Is the reading differentiated for students below grade level? Does it fit in my budget?

There are several resources available for teaching about the transcontinental railroad. As always, we recommend using the search function on bottom right of our history content page. Here are a few resources that may be of some use.

The Central Pacific Railroad History Museum's site offers a detailed history and several primary sources regarding the construction of the transcontinental railroad, including, for example, photographs, legislation, and letters. They also have an extensive bibliography of print resources.

The Library of Congress’s American Memory Collection on the Chinese and westward expansion has several primary resources that document the experiences of Chinese laborers during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

If you are looking to provide your students with a brief overview of the transcontinental railroad check out Digital History’s online textbook.

The virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco provides a brief but informative overview of the leading figures, like Leland Stanford, responsible for the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

Lastly, PBS has a lesson plan that examines two of the landmark documents regarding westward expansion: the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Act. Activity three in the lesson asks students to compare the construction of the transcontinental railroad from a variety of perspectives, including those of Chinese laborers. We should note that this lesson draws on a PBS documentary video that is not directly available on the site; but many resources are available on the site, and the activities can be easily adapted .

Online textbook options are convenient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. The key is finding one that is reliable, meets the needs of your students, and complies with district standards—so you will want to explore some to find one that fits your needs. We know of a few online textbooks that will help you get started in your search. Digital History, a project hosted by the University of Houston, offers an easy-to-use, high-quality textbook. Digital History is also a good resource for supplementary classroom materials including primary sources, e-lectures, and lesson plans. USHistory.org, created and hosted by the non-profit Independence Hall Association, also offers a complete illustrated U.S. history text that is clearly organized by topic and easy for students to use. A third option is the Outline of U.S. History, which is produced and maintained by the U.S. State Department. The Outline is a fairly comprehensive textbook, and is accompanied by useful supplementary resources, including historian essays and a briefer version of the textbook. Finally, Wikibooks offers a U.S. history textbook that is fairly comprehensive and easy to use. On a cautionary note, Wikibooks is an open source site (like Wikipedia), so teachers will want to carefully monitor the content of the site to be certain that the material is accurate and useful.