Step One:
Purchase a sturdy pocket folder with brads in the center for adding reference pages for each student. The pockets will hold photos, drawings, diagrams and other resources that students will use for their writing work.
Step Two:
Photocopy all reference sheets you will need over the course of the year. Empowering Writers resources have many for each genre and each teacher might want to create additional pages specific to their classroom.
Step Three:
Sort your reference sheets by genre: Narrative, Expository, Opinion, Response to Text and number the pages – this will make for easy navigation through the toolkit. Assign a color to each genre and photocopy each page for every student in the class.
Step Four:
Put the toolkit together and explain the purpose with students.
Step Five:
YOU ARE READY TO GO! HAPPY WRITING!