I love using informational text articles in my classes. For one thing, they’re an engaging way to teach science content. And by using them often you can work on students’ reading comprehension skills and vocabulary. But it’s not always easy to find interesting articles at the correct reading level. So I’ve put together a list of sites with interesting informational text topics and articles that are perfect for using with middle and high school students.
Types of Informational Text
First, let’s talk about the types of informational text that we can use.
- Sequence/Instruction/Process
This type of text presents something in a specific order or describes a process. Much of the writing in science articles and textbooks is this type.
- Compare/Contrast
This type of text will present similarities and/or differences between two or more things. This text is also very common in science. For example, this would be an appropriate type of writing to discuss topics like photosynthesis and cellular respiration, or mitosis and meiosis
- Description
Used to present “how, why or what” types of information. These types of text are relatively easy to find or write.
- Cause and Effect
Informational text describing cause and effect can be one of the more difficult types. It’s rare that an event or situation has only one cause and few effects, leading to complex reading.
- Problem/Solution
Since this type of text usually contains one or more of the other types, this is probably the most difficult to read and process. It’s helpful that students can understand and analyze the other 4 types of informational text before using this type.
5 SOURCES for science articles
- Science News for Students – this site has fantastic articles on all sorts of science topics. You can also find resources to use along with the articles. It’s free!
- Science Journal for Kids – another site with current articles written at a reading level appropriate for medium-level readers.
- Science Daily – excellent site for the most current topics.
- Time for Kids – Time magazine articles categorized by topic.
- Wonderopolis – has articles on many topics with a specific science section
All of these sites contain informational text topics that you can use as is, or use them as background information and research to write your own articles. They’re highly engaging and most are written specifically for students. They can also be great places for source material for CERs.
Check Out My Print and Go Informational Text Articles and Activities
Writing your own text articles can be time consuming. Coming up with a topic, doing the research, actually sitting down to write the articles and then making up the questions or activity to go along with it might be something you just don’t have time for right now.
I’ve got you covered! I’ve started a series of informational text articles that I’m calling Amazing Nature. Each article is written in a fun, engaging style and is based on a cool fact about an organism. The activities that go with each article contain vocabulary, comprehension questions, and an extension activity based on a Youtube video about the topic. There are QR codes leading to the videos and I’ve also included the URLs if they’re needed.
Click here to check out my informational text articles.
Do you have a great source that I haven’t mentioned here? Please fill us in!
