Looking for high-interest nonfiction resources for high school students can take time. Free or paid, finding nonfiction that will help you meet standards and interest students can be an endless search.
I am continuously searching for appropriate nonfiction to share with my secondary ELA students. Often, short articles add to a poetry, literature, or public speaking lesson positively. Below are places where I find nonfiction PDFs for English class. Hopefully, you can pick and choose what will work for your community.
What are the goals for nonfiction resources for high school?
Informational texts should be present in a variety of ways. Assignments work, sure. Additionally, the classroom library should include nonfiction texts. My First Chapter Friday choices also include nonfiction. So! How can we include these pieces naturally in our classes? Keep reading for nonfiction resources for high school .
Keep your (English-teacher) eyes open.
We always tell our students to be readers and following that advice, nonfiction reading exists in many spaces. I came across a resource today, and I think it will interest students. Many of our students focus on college. . . and for good reason: Some will be there in four years or less.
Sure, I was intrigued when I read about Starbucks CEO announcing the company would pay for employee’s college tuition. I was skeptical, but excited.
Like many future teachers, I worked multiple jobs through college, and I still had loans. A boost would have been helpful. I continued reading about the free college assertion, because I wanted to know how true it was. It is true (with rules) and Starbucks employees are ready to get their educations.
Sure enough, my continued researching found an opposing viewpoint today. “Starbucks price hike” by Pat Schneider highlights:
Other analysts said the program fails to address systemic problems in higher education and financial aid, and even threatens to exacerbate them.
Finally, don’t wear on yourself in the search for pieces. On social media? You might find the perfect piece for background knowledge or for critical thinking.
Include texts in your library.
One of the easiest way to incorporate nonfiction into your classroom is to display books for students. I’ve reviewed several memoirs and other pieces:
When I shop at thrift stores, I grab nonfiction “coffee table” books off the shelves. Those books are full of pictures and easily accessible information. I’ve discovered books about golf, cars, presidents, and animals. I even have a book about animal waste, and it is one of the more popular books in my library.
Adding nonfiction books is a great way to naturally add informational texts to students’ reading diets. Plus, pulling excerpts is a quick option. I use Small PDF to help me with compressing files.
Incorporate nonfiction with literature to increase comprehension.
You might teach more nonfiction than you credit yourself. Do you teach the background of stories, either the author’s life or pieces about the setting? For instance, with The Hunger Games, pull current data about poverty, food scarcity, and income inequality. Unfortunately, I always find a current article.
When I teach a Shakespeare play, we read about Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, and the play’s time period. You probably do too!
As you incorporate informational texts with literature, ensure that you are meeting standards. With a few additional questions or activities, you might be checking off more standards than you realize.
Finally, directly connect the facts to the literature. Students might not intentionally realize how that information influences the literature. Be sure to model realization of that connection.
Find free nonfiction resources for high school students.
Free nonfiction resources for high school students? Here is where to browse:
Common Lit
I use Common Lit, but sometimes, I want my students off their iPads and not answering multiple choice questions. Plus, all of the answers are online for free! Students manage to find previous answers which hurts an authentic discussion and brainstorming session.
Use the articles and create your own questions and activities.
News ELA
News ELA has some quality materials. Sometimes I ask students to search the homepage and present an article of interest to the class.
New York Times
I pay for the NYT, but you can access many articles for free. Download a few, and you’ll have PDFs for students.
ESPN
Students love reading articles from ESPN. Personally, I am not a huge sports fan. Many of my students are, and when a big sporting event happens, I might share an article with the class to interest students.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar turns up helpful informational pieces on a variety of topics. Whatever genre, time period, subject, interest, research exists. Now, some of the pieces are long and dry, but excerpts work. Jigsawing a piece works as well.
Another option is to search for a topic in front of students so they see the modeling of finding research.
Nonfiction articles for high school.
The grade level for high school students is different than middle school students—which makes the process of finding current events and interesting articles complicated. I can only suggest age-appropriate nonfiction materials for diverse high school classrooms. These above links along with the variety in my bundle can get you started. Plus, if you are ever looking for topics that resonate with high school students, you can survey them and start with their keywords.
Part of using informational texts in class is explaining the purpose for reading a variety of texts. For instance, I desire my students to hone in on a topic, to really become impassioned about a topic that influences them. Online resources and librarians can bring resources to flesh out lessons and encourage further learning about whatever topic we’re covering in class.
Do you have any other places to find nonfiction articles for high school students? Share your ideas below.