Some of The Best Nonfiction Texts for High School Language Arts In 2026

First of all, the common core division between reading informational texts and reading literary texts has always seemed reductive to me. If we want students to understand how the world of words works and where texts come from, we should be less simplistic when it comes to categories.

That said, if you are looking for excellent nonfiction texts to study in high school language arts, these are some of my favorites that have been engaging and important to my students.

1. “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace is one of my very favorite writers, and this commencement address to Kenyon College is thoughtful, nuanced, but also accessible for high school readers.

It’s a text I would read at the beginning of the year in a high school class because it sets up a conversation about why we study liberal arts in school at all or why we have school at all.

It’s also a great text to use to introduce media literacy and research because it highlights the importance of metacognition. It encourages students to think about the water they’re swimming in as they read.

In my classes this year, I will be starting the year with my Publication Posters project where students work in groups to make posters describing powerful and reliable sources online, so they can navigate this trippy aquarium called the internet, and I’m going to use David Foster Wallace’s address to kick off the unit.

2. “Leap” by Brian Doyle

When my 10th grade ELA students read this essay this year, the room was solemn. This made sense because it’s a short, intense lyrical essay about the two anonymous people who held hands as they leapt from the World Trade Center on 9/11.

What surprised me the most was about a week later when a student who had been absent was reading the article during my advisory period. The quarter was coming to an end, and I was helping several students catch up with various assignments, so I handed her the essay and annotation instructions without giving much context. After reading the esssay to herself at a desk near mine, She turned to me and said, “Wait. What is this essay about?”

I realized then, that even though the context of the essay would have been obvious to someone older with a memory of 9/11 and its aftermath, context clues like towers burning, people jumping to their deaths, and firefighters risking their lives did not trigger the same cultural memory for her.

Understanding what happened on 9/11 is essential to understanding America in the 21st century, and reading a short but powerful essay like “Leap,” can help students today start to grasp the significance of that event.

3. The Sullivan Ballou Letter

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High School Civil War Primary Source Lesson | Ballou Letter | Print or Digital

The Sullivan Ballou Letter breaks hearts and that's why it matters. High school students in U.S. History need more than just facts and figures to be moved by the history of the American Civil War. Reading this letter shows students the human cost of war while getting them to work on the real work of...

If essays like “Leap” can help students understand 9/11’s impact, the Sullivan Ballou Letter can do the same for Gettysburg. This stunning letter cuts through the distance between the 19th and 21st centuries by demonstrating the courage and love of one soldier.

So often, we try to explain to students the enormity of the Civil War with casualty statistics, but I think zooming in on the experience of one person can actually make a bigger emotional impact.

This letter could belong in a history class, but it also belongs in language arts, especially in language art classes focusing on American literature.

It shows students that writing isn’t just for famous authors and poets. It’s a powerful part of the human experience, and it can bridge the distance between you and the people you love in your darkest moments.

4. How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua

This essay comes from Anzaldua’s great book Borderlands/La Frontera. I didn’t read this book until graduate school, so I wasn’t sure if it was too complex for my 10th grade ELA students this past school year. We read just the first four pages and we did a stop and jot as we read.

My students reflected and made personal connects at four stopping points (so roughly after each page), and I was impressed with the connections they made.

Most of my students are either immigrants or the children of immigrants, and many are bilingual, so they had a lot to relate to in the article, but I think the most powerful theme in the essay is universal. The argument that language is power and that the way you speak, the words that are passed down to you, is something to protect.

5. What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? By Frederick Douglass

I love telling my students the story behind this speech. I love describing the context—a Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia. I love telling how Douglass would only agree to speak on the fifth of July because he didn’t want to fully embrace the fourth. I love telling how the northern abolitionists who gathered around probably expected a patriotic, celebratory speech and got something much more fiery and much more meaningful.

This speech is also meaningful for high school ELA because it shows students that you can have complex feelings about America. You can both celebrate and criticize your home and your people. You can express rage and hope. You can do this if you are a skilled writer and speaker like Douglass was.