The importance of writing across the curriculum

Why should students engage in writing activities in every class? An important answer to that question is that student writing, in any classroom, is a window into how students think about the concepts they are learning. Writing assignments make terrific formative assessments. Something as simple as an exit pass, a few sentences written on index cards summarizing the day's lesson, allows teachers to gauge the level of concept mastery students have attained. Written products, whether simple or complex, reveal the extent of a learner's understanding and are a window through which the writer's thinking processes can be viewed. For this reason alone, writing activities are essential learning experiences and should be a part of every teacher's routine practice.(from the Teachers At Work column at Visual Thesaurus)

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