Types of Rocks | FREE Earth Science Reading Comprehension Passage & Questions

Studying the three main kinds of rocks - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic - helps middle and high school students connect Earth’s processes to real evidence, from volcanoes and fossils to mountain building and resource use, making it a natural fit for NGSS MS-ESS2 and HS-ESS2. A focused reading passage with questions gives every learner a clearer path to mastery by preparing them to learn about how each rock type forms, what textures and minerals to look for, and how the rock cycle moves matter and energy through Earth’s crust. The passage includes an engaging visual with scaffolded questions that move from recall to classification to interpreting evidence. This format streamlines planning, strengthens science literacy and observation skills, and helps students apply concepts during lab stations, field notes, or photo identification, turning rock names into powerful clues about our planet’s history.

This types of rocks science article provides the perfect grab and go, print and provide resource that can help your students learn all about types of rocks. For digital, you can provide a Google doc copy for ease of submission or a Microsoft word version as well. In this types of rocks article with questions to check comprehension and inspire scientific thinking.

THIS TYPES OF ROCKS ARTICLE CAN BE USED SO MANY WAYS:

• Useful for substitute (sub) teaching
• To extend students
• To increase scientific literacy in your class
• A weekly reading task
• Great as a lesson filler when class goes too fast
• To inspire students on a particular topic
• Give a selection of these articles for students to choose from

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS TYPES OF ROCKS ARTICLE:

• 3 page Word doc teacher version with answers
• 2 page Word doc student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
• 3 page PDF teacher version with answers
• 2 page PDF student version without answers (but space left to do so)
• 3 page Google doc teacher version with answers
• 2 page Google doc student version with room to fill answers (text boxes)

WANT MORE AMAZING ARTICLES LIKE THIS TYPES OF ROCKS ARTICLE? MANY ARE AVAILABLE!

I am very proud of this series of science articles and they are rich with information and wonder at the majesty of science. Each science article includes a fun fact(s) to add to the knowledge gained from this article. Formatted in an easy to read and digest manner, each paragraph is numbered to help with referencing and each question answer has a paragraph reference number to point to the specific information (where applicable).