Classrooms that foster communication skills are characterised by:

• Respect - we demonstrate sensitivity, understanding and empathy. Students embrace diverse opinions and different ways of knowing, show mutual respect and listen intently to one another. They appreciate the unique character of each writer's voice, and applaud the array of topics and interests evident in their writing communities. 
• Dialogic talk - genuine dialogue dominates the classroom. Teachers and students jointly contribute to the learning. Together they inquire, ask questions of each other and accept different perspectives in response.
• Authenticity - we write for real purposes and audiences. Students understand why they write and for whom. They publish on a regular basis. In Foundation, they publish every week or two weeks because this provides an invaluable source of reading material too. Other grades publish at least twice a term.
• High expectations - teachers inspire young writers not to lower their standards. Careful, encouraging praise where it is due can fuel the efforts of writers for a long time. A writing teacher looks for what is working well: a stand-out sentence, phrase or choice of word, a feeling engendered. The student who writes one sentence has an idea to be expanded; the student who has written just the date may be encouraged to write a diary. No writing effort can be wrong or bad, it is just unfinished, and all children - especially reluctant, resistant writers - need to know that they have a voice and it is being heard.

Communicating through writing is a social practice. Students need to share their writing with an appreciative audience if they are to grow as writers.