This is the Rubric for the

Local Geography Paper. Read it. Make your paper conform to it.

Item/Score	1 (not good)	2 (not so good)	3 (Getting Better)	4 (Ideal)
Length
Fifth Grade	A couple sentences	A Paragraph	A Page	2-3 Pages
Seventh Grade	Less than a page	A page	2-3 pages	4 pages
Eighth Grade	A page	2-3 pages	4 pages	5+ pages.
Format/ Legibility	No formatting	Effort at formatting	Some successful formatting	Typed. Double Spaced. 12 point Times New Roman. One inch margins all around. Headings bold, 14 point Times New Roman. Page numbers on all pages, bottom center. Neat cursive handwriting is also acceptable
Introduction, Body, Conclusion	Not recognizable	Labeled, but not substantiated.	Headed, and leaning in the direction of doing their jobs.	Headed, and consistent with their headings. Intro tells what going to tell, body tells it, conclusion tells what was told.
Content	Not factual	Researched to some extent.	Mostly researched, well structured, but not entirely cited.	Well researched. Coherent. Research is cited. Follows guidelines laid out below. Includes aspects of Physical and Cultural Geography.
Citations	Nonexistent.	Partial	Effort was made, but incorrect formatting, or other small errors.	Bibliography is well put together and in proper format. Alphabetical order.

Local Geography “Place Paper”

1. You will need to pick a local place. This can be very specific, such as “My Families Land” or a little more general, such as “Salmon Creek Community” Geographical features can also be chosen, such as “The Eel River” or “Gillem Butte.” Keep in mind that broader topics, such as “The Eel River” will have far more information on them than extremely localized and remote locations.

2. Your report should follow the following rough outline. Deviation from this outline is fine, as is mixing up components, but in general this is what I am looking for in each report.

1.     Introduction

2.     Body

a. What is the place you are talking about? Why is it important? What is its modern context?

b. Why do we care? What is the history of this place?

c. Physical Geography influences. Weather, climate, etc.

d. Cultural Geography. Who has lived here thru the ages? How have they interacted with the place?

3.     Pictures. You will need a minimum of three illustrations in your paper. These can be maps, diagrams, photographs, hand drawn sketches, and charts, as well as any other visual. The criteria are that you need three, but each one must be from different genera. I do not want three of the same thing.

4.     First Person Interview. You need to find a person that has been in the area that your report deals with for more than 20 years, and interview them about your topic. I will need to see the dated interview, and how you incorporated it in to your report. If you have trouble finding someone, come see me.

5.     Conclusion.

6.     Bibliography. This will follow the same format as the previous report. APA formatting guidelines can be found here http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/. I will provide examples of proper citations upon request. Here is an example:

Book: Jans, N. (1993). The last light breaking: Life among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Northwest Books.

Website: The Sea Turtle Restoration Project homepage presents a wealth of compelling, well-researched information on the struggle to save the world's sea turtles from extinction (http://www.seaturtles.org).

A complete list and examples of how you should cite different materials can be found here:       http://www.umuc.edu/library/guides/apa.shtml

Although is would be nice if it were, this is not an exhaustive guide to your report. There should be questions about how you should write your report. Please come ask me them. Thank you, and have fun.

Timeline

September 27th. Rough draft due. Following Thursday: Final Draft.