Informational texts aren’t just for school

“Even if the CCSS are not adopted in your state, the theory and instruction we present is devoted to developing not only competence in literacy, but competence in life.”Jeffrey Wilhelm, Michael Smith, and James Fredricksen

Informational texts aren’t just for school. They are a real-world tool for making things happen. Similarly, the Common Core State Standards for writing are designed to help adolescents be prepared for the world outside the classroom.

That’s why Jeffrey Wilhelm, Michael Smith, and James Fredricksen wrote Get It Done! So that once kids leave school, they’ll have the skills, know-how, and agency to do work that matters by composing nonfiction texts—and so that their teachers have a clear-cut set of strategies for instruction in informational genres.

Naming and listing, summarizing, describing, defining, comparing and contrasting, classifying, identifying cause–effect relationships, exploring problem–solution situations—Get It Done! will both help you teach all these types of informational texts engagingly and effectively, while explicitly connecting your work to the Common Core State Standards.

Help your students Get It Done! “We think that through effective instruction, the goals of the CCSS and much more can be met,” write Wilhelm, Smith, and Fredricksen. “More important we want the work we and our students do to matter.”