Best Writing Folders...Ever!

Here they are! Aren't they beautiful? Literacy Consultant Kristina Smekens showed me how to make these. You'll need two plain pocket folders per student if you want a 4-pocket folder, 3 folders if you want 6-pockets.

Notice the spiral binding. Cut one folder in half. These two pieces become the front and back. Fold the 2nd folder inside out and place it in the middle of the two halves. Bind them and voila!! Best folder ever!

The first year I made these (99 of them, by the way, since I teach 3 writing classes), I used three folders so students would have one pocket for each of the 6 writing traits. In these pockets, students stored their writings that represented each trait, organizers, writing notes, etc. By the end of that year, I didn't like it so much. The traits overlap, as they should, and I felt I was compartmentalizing their writings too much. These days, I have four pockets and each pocket has a label: Argument (persuasuve, opinion), Expository (informative), Narrative (real or imagined), and the 4th pocket is for writing ideas in general. These are the 3 writing genres recognized by the CCSS. This really works for my students; they like building a repository for their writings. Since I'm thrifty, I remove the black spiral at the end of the year and staple the folders together so they can take them home for their parents to treasure (a girl can dream!).

Bought my folders at WalMart during the 1¢ sale advertised by Staples. Price matching! Yayyy!