I have used the book "Achieve! English Text Types Informative 1" by Susie Brown when teaching information reports in English. It can definitely be used across year levels, however, I think it is perfect for Year 7 or Year 8 to provide a modified alternative to your classes.
The book is aligned with AusVELS and have a heap of worksheets for students that break down the features and structure of information reports and factual recounts. It follows my writing sequence that I often use in teaching writing in both primary and secondary schools. It begins with deconstructing a text and identifying the key structure and features. It then breaks up the different parts of the structure and truly scaffolds those parts for students. In addition to focusing on just how to write the part of the text, it has activities on the key features such as finding the main idea in a paragraph, attention grabbing sentence, sequencing and time connectives. Thus, many of the strategies you teach in reading are complemented in these activities.The text is written in a larger font so not to scare off those struggling readers and has a number of graphic organisers with instructions on how to read those organisers and use them to help with structuring and "organising" your writing.
For me, the best part about this book is that there are Teacher's notes throughout that show you how to introduce the lessons on writing the different sections of the text, how to use the worksheets in your lesson and even a section on extension. Your lesson plans are pretty much drafted for you, as well as the sequence of your writing unit. And, it comes with a CD to have electronic copies of the worksheets and lessons.
Thanks Susie Brown and Blake Education for creating such a wonderful book to assist teachers with writing.
http://www.blake.com.au/Achieve-English-Text-Types-Informative-1-p/9781922090188.htm