Assigning an essay in English class or out always gets you the gamut of student reactions. Some smile fervently—they got this. Some roll their eyes. Some throw up in their mouths a little bit. Unfortunately for the haters, writing in subjects outside of English is an awesome strategy to promote learning retention and critical thinking.

While essays have been souring the hearts and minds of youths for generations, using writing in all content areas can be an excellent assessment tool. In fact, essays are great for overall learning and application.

Shhh. Don't tell the multiple-choice tests.

When students are asked to explain in writing what they have learned, they utilize critical thinking and learning becomes concrete. Simply put, writing takes more brainpower and effort, which is why teens get pouty when the "essay" word is dropped. Don't worry; it's good for them—essays are literary broccoli.

If assigning essays isn't really your thing, that's okay. There are other creative ways to use writing as an assessment tool.

1. Use "What If" questions. Hypothetical reasoning promotes higher order thinking in students, and, by golly, it can be fun. These assess a student's understanding of the material in an "effect and cause" (you know, the opposite of "cause and effect") kinda way.

Like:

• What if everyone still believed the world was flat in 2015?
• What if Abraham Lincoln never existed?
• What if we couldn't taste our food?
• What if Pythagoras had kept his theorem to himself?
• What if Darwin didn't have a thing for finches?
• What if Martin Luther King Jr. never told anyone his "dream?"

2. Here's another. "You Are There" essays place students in a specific situation. They can take on the identity of a reporter or witness, and often come up with creatively awesome scenes. Let's try it out:

• You are there when the Emancipation Proclamation is signed. Describe who was there, what the proclamation declared, and how different people reacted.
• You are there when Marie Curie is explaining her lifelong accomplishments. What does she say? Do you believe her?
• You are on an expedition with Christopher Columbus. Where are you going? What is he like? How does it feel to "discover" new lands? You might even throw a "what if" in here to make them think about how Chris might have viewed the "natives" kind of differently.

3. And here's one more to keep ya going for good measure. Dialogue writing helps enhance understanding of concepts. Teachers are able to quickly see which students are "getting it" and which students may have been texting during your lecture.

• A dialogue between a daisy (or a rose, or a tree, or a sticky weed) and the sun to explain photosynthesis.
• A dialogue between the CEO of a major corporation and a local farmer whom the CEO is forcing out of business.
• A dialogue between an owl and a mouse demonstrating the food chain. Ew.

You can use those guys to get the ol' essay ball rolling. The goal with these think-out-of-the-box types is to minimize the vomit-in-the-mouth reaction. Hey, maybe you'll even discover a new breed of creative writers.