I have certainly noticed that many of my 9th grade students have handwriting that is underdeveloped for their age: Very few know how to write in cursive, and many have print writing that looks like it belongs in a first or second grade classroom. I definitely also see a strong correlation between mature handwriting and mature CONTENT in writing.
The NMSI article also reminds me that I have a responsibility to give my students time to reflect IN WRITING after every lesson. Too often, the end of class reflective writing time gets cut - the lesson run long, I go off on a tangent, we get interrupted by assembly/fire drill/SGA elections what-have-you, and rather than stop the lesson early and pick it up the next day I will try to cram in time to finish the work and just leave out the time to reflect. But of course the reflection time is when the learning really happens isn't it? So by leaving that out, I'm leaving out a vital part of the day's lesson.
What prompts or activities do you use to get your students writing reflectively after a lesson?