Homework Activity for "Summer Rituals" Due by 8 p.m. Tuesday Night

Here it is:

Think of a summer ritual (remember the definition given in my first post) and respond to these questions from your handout.

What summer ritual do you participate in? Why do you repeat this ritual? What purpose does it hold for you? For others whom you know? For society in general? Use concrete examples in the same manner as Ray Bradbury. Write no more than 125 words in paragraph form.

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Copy of "Summer Rituals" and Place for Questions

Here's a copy of the reading by Ray Bradbury, "Summer Rituals."

If you have questions or comments to make, use the comment link under this post. This is not a homework assignment, but will count towards my extra marks for participation (awarded before your final mark is calculated).

Quality of submissions count. Good questions are welcome.

Welcome New Students

This is your blog. It provides a fun and interesting way for us to meet the Ministry of Education requirement that we "employ a variety of effective processes and strategies, including the use of electronic technology, to generate, gather, and organize information and ideas."

This week, we will examine our rituals, with an emphasis on the ones associated with summer. We will write a 500-word descriptive essay on one of our summer rituals as the final evaluation in the unit. Remember the meaning of a ritual: "a customarily repeated act that expresses a system of values." This "system of values" is what we refer to as a culture.

On Saturday, I will post questions for us to answer about rituals in our lives. Your work here will be marked out of ten and count as an out-of-class mark. This work will help us all to generate good ideas for our essays.

Next week, I'll introduce the essay topic in class and show "Blackberries at Jericho," my sample essay, (first and second draft) to the class. My third (and fourth, not yet written) drafts will be published later in the week and over the weekend.

This year's Writing 12 class will participate in the exercise and, with their help, will publish a few of the best student essays at their online newspaper, The Pearson Buzz.