Free Explanatory Article Reading Passages

Explanatory article reading passages help students understand how something works, why something happens or how ideas connect. PicoBuddy offers explanatory informational passages that are useful for building knowledge and practicing nonfiction comprehension.

Every PicoBuddy passage includes comprehension questions, an online quiz, a free PDF download and an editable Word download. This makes explanatory articles easy to use for classroom lessons, homeschool practice, tutoring, homework, intervention or independent reading. You can print, assign online or adapt the Word version.

Explanatory articles can help students practice main idea, supporting details, cause and effect, sequence, vocabulary in context, text structure and summarizing. They are especially useful when students need to understand a process, concept or real-world question.

Topics might include science explanations, historical events, technology, nature, health, inventions, weather, animals or everyday systems. These passages help students read to learn while also practicing how nonfiction writing explains ideas.

For more nonfiction practice, browse all informational reading passages. When you need a text about a specific process or concept, you can create a custom reading passage in PicoBuddy.

Use explanatory articles when you want students to practice comprehension with texts that answer how and why questions.