Non-fiction reading and writing.

The ASCD published magazine Educational Leadership focused their November edition on "Tackling Informational Text". Editor in Chief, Marge Scherer describes the conversations that took place with the EL editors on their experiences with nonfiction text and how the authors discuss how the CCSS emphasize teaching students how to read informational text. 

Educators are reminded by Mary Ehrenworth (deputy director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, New York),  "You are educating them not for the state test, not for that college class, but for the contributions they'll make to the world.....You are setting out to transform their ideas about what it means to read."

Here is a great article about starting out with informational texts:

Ed Leadership: Starting Out Practices

Check out this website for free downloads of great primary level non-fiction texts.
http://textproject.org/students/beginningreads/