Week 8

Response 1

One of the things I underlined in Hodges' article, "And the Question is this - 'what lessons can we, as writers, take from this reading for our own writing?" was her statement that she 'define[d] writing as a craft, not an art, because a craft is something on can develop and an art seems to be the gift of only a few lucky individuals, unattainable to most' (527). My definition of writing was always just something that we did in class that was taught in elementary school with large lined papers and tracing. I have spent class so far trying to figure out my philosophy of teaching and how I am going to teach and yet, reading this I realized that I didn't have a simple definition for writing. I like the idea of writing as a craft, as Hodges goes on to explain how she makes her students feel in charge of their craft and teaches them skills to develop the craft. When I think of a craft I think of my ball of yarn that I am suppose to make into a blanket with a long, metal hook. I will have to create my chain and then build stitches upon each other. I could see how writing is the same. The students come into class with a general knowledge (their chain) and then as teachers we build upon their chain for a finished project.