Reading: Reading during a writing workshop is crucial for students; it allows them to go back and read their writing, finding errors along the way, and also helps to broaden their vocabulary. Having students go back and re-read their writing allows them to get into the habit of doing so after they finish writing. Re-reading work to look for spelling errors, and grammatical issues helps students catch their mistakes, and fix sentences that sound a little funny. Providing students with writing prompts, or short readings during the writing workshops helps students practice their reading skills, while broadening their vocabulary. 

Speaking: Sharing is a huge part of a writing workshop. Reading their written work out loud to a classmate allows students to gain practice speaking in front of others, and allows them to get to know their classmates better. Allowing children time to share their work with a classmate helps students develop better communication skills amongst peers.

Listening: Whether the teacher is explaining the writing workshop for the day, or if a classmate is reading their work aloud, the student must be listening. Good listening skills are necessary for success in the classroom. By listening to other classmate’s work, students gain experience being active, good listeners to get the most out of the writing workshop.  

Writing: Writing without the fear of misspelling words, and having their writing judged by the teacher many times restricts students who are very capable of creating wonderful pieces of writing. Writing workshops are designed to allow students to go outside of their comfort zone, and get their pencils to the paper without getting deep into the mechanics of writing. Practicing writing on a daily basis allows students to gain experience as writers, and find their own, unique writing style. With help and guidance from the teacher, over time, students writing will begin to explore new ideas, and feel more confident in their abilities as writers. 

Viewing: Students, when pushed outside of their comfort zones, whether during the writing workshop, or during real life situations, begin to view things with a different perspective. Taking the pressure off of students during the time of the writing workshops allows them to gather ideas from their lives, and view things in different ways. For example, something that is going on in a student’s life that is really negatively impacting them, can become a piece of writing, that has potential to help other kids dealing with similar situations. Taking a different view on a topic, situation, or even the way we learn can have a lasting impact on students and the quality work they produce.
Visually Representing:
Having students display their work on Smart-boards, or iPads incorporated technology into the classroom, while allowing students to be independent and gain skills on how technology works. It also allows for students to explore all the possibilities technology has to offer, while broadening their communication skills via technology.