2015 Theme: Inventors and Risk-Takers Help Make
Our Community a Better Place
General Instructions for Teachers and Principals
1) READ the attached prompt and rubric before you make copies for your students. The prompt and rubric are photocopied back to back to save paper. Please photocopy both the prompt and the rubric for your students to refer to as they write their essay.
2) READ the instructions to the students, even though they are on the prompt.
3) NEW INSTRUCTION: READ THE GRADING RUBRIC TO THE STUDENTS. THIS RUBRIC
IS USED TO JUDGE THE ESSAYS—RUBRIC IS ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THE PROMPT.
- 4)Make sure you allow them enough time to be returned.
- 5)LASD essays must be returned to the LASD Asst. Superintendent’s office by March 6.
- 6)Private school/home-schooled essays must be returned to the History Museum by March 6.
- 7)When you receive the completed essays from your students, please put them into a manila envelope. Please label the envelope the “MARGARET THOMPSON HISTORICAL ESSAY CONTEST.”
- 8)Prompt, instructions, and rubric are also available at the following websites: Los Altos History Museum, Los Altos School District, and the City of Los Altos.
- 9)ESSAYS WILL NOT BE RETURNED. PLEASE ASK STUDENTS TO MAKE A COPY BEFORE THEY TURN IN THEIR ESSAYS.
A note of appreciation from the Los Altos Historical Commission and the Education Committee of the Los Altos History Museum to participating teachers:
Thank you for agreeing to participate in the running of this contest. We hope that you and your students find it interesting and rewarding, and that it encourages interest in the history of Los Altos.
- Prizes and recognition for students
- Trophy awarded to school with the most winners
Prizes will be awarded at an ice cream social for the winners, their parents, teachers, and principals held prior to the Council meeting at the History Museum patio on May 12. A 25th Anniversary trophy is also awarded to the school/schools with the most winners. Following the ice cream social, winners will also be recognized at the City Council meeting that evening. The City Council meeting is televised on cable TV and via streaming video online at www.losaltosca.gov/citycouncil/online.
