The Love Around Us

Learning occurs at the intersection of what students already know and what they are ready to
learn. Writing to learn then becomes more than a way for students to learn new subject matter.
Journals, letters, and other cognitive writing tasks also reveal to instructors and peers something
of the writers' thought processes. Writing to learn becomes a way for instructors to learn about
the individuals seated in that classroom. Who are they? What do they already know? What will
connect them vitally to the abstractions in our lesson plans? Writing across the curriculum means
involving students in their own learning, enabling students to establish dialogue with each other,
with their textbooks, with documents of their culture, and with the world.