In 4th grade, students write state reports in the form of Literary Non- Fiction.  Literary Non-Fiction is made up of 4 types of writing:

1. Narratives embedded with facts;
2. Question and answer books;
3. A B C Books;
4. Poetry embedded with facts.

The Report Writing Standards that we use at Wellstone say that ...

Students will:

Engage the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona and otherwise developing reader interest;

Develop a controlling idea that conveys a perspective on the subject;

Create an organizing structure appropriate to a specific purpose, audience and context;

Include appropriate fact and details;

Exclude extraneous and inappropriate information;

Use a range of appropriate strategies such as providing facts and details, describing or analyzing the subject and narrating a relevant anecdote;

Provide a sense of closure to the writing.

Of course we put that in language that the students can understand...

 I can engage the reader by grabbing the reader’s attention and keeping it; I can even pretend that I am not me as I write;

I can have one main idea that every part of the Literary Non-Fiction report helps to explain;

I can create an organizing structure appropriate to my Literary Non-Fiction writing;
   
I can include appropriate facts and details and I can take out irrelevant (not important) facts and details;

I can use writing strategies such as explaining facts and details, describing with beautiful language and telling stories that help people understand what I mean;

I can have a conclusion that re-tells my main idea.

Look for facts about your state at these sites:
State Reports
50 States
Kids.gov
Stately Knowledge
Netstate
World Almanac for Kids (Scroll down to the states)