Writing-to-learn activities are designed to use writing as a process in which students generate and clarify understanding of scientific concepts for themselves, rather than simply communicating with a teacher for evaluation. Instead of having students parrot science facts back to the instructor, writing-to-learn activities focus on the production of nontraditional writing assignments--such as poems, brochures, or letters--to develop understanding (Yore and Treagust 2006). This article highlights the author's experience using multimodal writing tasks and their impact on student learning in his high school biology and chemistry classrooms. (Contains 4 figures.)