Nonfiction Reading Passages
These nonfiction reading passages pair informational text with comprehension and analysis questions, built for middle and high school classrooms. Each set gives students a focused, standards-friendly passage on a real science or history topic, followed by text-dependent questions that ask them to find evidence, summarize, and draw conclusions — not just recall facts. Passages print cleanly on US Letter paper, use a readable layout with room to write, and come with a complete answer key. Use them as a do-now, a reading-day assignment, a sub-day activity, or a homework set. Topics are grouped by subject — earth and nature science, space and astronomy, US history, and world history — so the reading reinforces the unit you're teaching instead of standing apart from it. Singles and multi-passage bundles are both available.
More sets are added by subject as the collection grows. Browse what's live below, or explore our video worksheets too.
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Science
Five original nonfiction reading passages on ecosystems and biomes, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to CCSS reading and NGSS life-science standards.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on dinosaurs and prehistoric life, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to the reading standards below.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on the ocean and marine life, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to the reading standards below.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on space and the solar system, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to the reading standards below.
Four complete nonfiction reading-passage sets in one download - 20 original passages across the science topics middle schoolers actually study: ecosystems and biomes, dinosaurs and prehistoric life, oceans and marine life, and space and the solar system. Every passage comes with comprehension questions and a full answer key, and each set carries its own standards page.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on the science behind the 2026 Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry, plus how the laureates are chosen. Written for high school science classes ahead of the December 10 award ceremony. Each passage has eight questions, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.
Technology & Engineering
Five original nonfiction reading passages that teach middle schoolers how artificial intelligence works and how to think critically about it, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time.
Five original nonfiction reading passages that use the October 2026 Tesla Roadster demonstration to teach high school physics, and to teach students the difference between a company's claim and an independent measurement. Each passage has eight questions, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on the engineering behind five technologies in the news: rockets that land and fly again, lithium-ion batteries, satellite internet, re-entry heat shields, and batteries for the power grid. Each passage explains the physics and includes one calculation question, and where a passage uses a company's cost or performance figure, it says who reported it. Each passage has eight questions, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.
Three reading-passage sets (physics, engineering, economics) and two DBQs (commercial spaceflight, self-driving cars), Grades 9-12. Sold separately $18.85; bundle $14.95 (saves $3.90).
Five original nonfiction reading passages that use NASA's Artemis plan, as the agency described it in October 2026, to teach high school physics: orbits, rendezvous and docking, refueling in space, and why the first landing is aimed at the Moon's south pole. Each passage has eight questions, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.
Social Studies
Five original nonfiction reading passages on ancient China - its dynasties, thinkers, and inventions, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to the reading standards below.
Five original nonfiction reading passages on the causes, course, and outcome of the American Revolution, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time. Built for middle school (grades 6-8) and aligned to the reading standards below.
Five original nonfiction reading passages that teach high school students the ideas behind everyday money decisions, each with comprehension questions and a full answer key. Print and go, or assign one passage at a time.
Five original nonfiction reading passages that teach core economics ideas through two companies students already hear about: Tesla and SpaceX. Students learn economies of scale and the learning curve, vertical integration, government incentives and who pays for them, the falling cost of reaching orbit, and the difference between a company's market value and its profit. Each passage has eight questions, including one calculation question, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.
Five original nonfiction reading passages for high school US history and geography, written for the centennial of Route 66 (numbered November 11, 1926). Students follow the road from the 1926 numbered highway system through the Dust Bowl migration, the roadside economy, the Interstate highways that bypassed it, and its revival as a heritage route. Each passage has eight questions, including one calculation question, and a full answer key is included. Print the passages, or assign them in Google Forms.