Reading Passages Teaching Resources
Explore reading passages ready to be used in your primary classroom to assess your students' comprehension skills and build their confidence as readers!
Created by teachers for teachers, each reading passage in this extensive collection has been designed to enhance student comprehension skills and build understanding. This collection of Australian English curriculum-aligned comprehension passages was created by the teachers on the Teach Starter team, and each has undergone a review by an expert on our team to ensure it’s ready for your classroom.
Not sure where to begin? Here’s a quick primer from our teacher team to help you get the most out of this teacher tool!
What Are Reading Passages?
Reading passages are a set of written texts that are typically used for reading comprehension exercises and assessments. They can come in various forms, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama. They are used to provide a text for students to read and analyse and are often accompanied by questions or tasks to assess comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and other language skills.
How to Use Reading Passages in the Classroom
This collection of short reading passages can be used for a variety of needs, including:
- Practising reading fluency
- Provide students with practise in reading comprehension and critical thinking skills
- Measuring students’ reading level
- Exposing students to different genres, authors and writing styles
Best of all? Teach Starter's reading passages have been developed so they can be used for individual or group activities.
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Plant Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn about unusual plants and their adaptations with a pack of printable reading comprehension worksheets.
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Australian Inventions — The Black Box Comprehension Worksheets
Discover amazing Australian inventions like the Black Box In-Flight data recorder with a printable reading comprehension activity.
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Famous Inventors Fact File — Alessandro Volta Comprehension Worksheet
Print an Alessandro Volta fact file worksheet to introduce students to this famous inventor and expand their understanding of electricity!
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Plant and Animal Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Passage
Boost reading comprehension skills with a comprehension passage, with questions, about structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations.
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Humpty Dumpty Off the Wall – Comprehension Worksheet
Integrate nursery rhymes and early reading comprehension skills with a Humpty Dumpty reading passage and comprehension questions.
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Remembrance Day Comprehension Worksheet
Explain Remembrance Day history and traditions to your students with a printable cloze reading passage and comprehension questions.
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Community Helpers: Doctor – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an article from the Foundation magazine (Bonus Issue).
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Community Helpers: Fire Fighter – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an article from the Foundation magazine (Issue 3).
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How to Make a Twirling Spinner Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine procedure article about making a twirling spinner.
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Welcome to Scotland! – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a country profile from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 2).
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Search-a-Rooney 2 – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a image stimulus poster where students need to locate objects and characters.
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Art Attack! Shape – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 3).
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Search-a-Rooney 1 – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a image stimulus poster where students need to locate objects and characters.
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10 Fascinating Facts About Beaches – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about beaches.
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Days of the Week – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Foundation magazine (Issue 3).
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Messy Moments – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic from the Foundation magazine (Issue 3).
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The Robot Chant – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet accompanying a rhyming chant about robots.
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The Hovering Hoverboard – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a fake advertisement from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
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When Winter Comes - Keeping Warm Worksheet
A poem to activate students' prior knowledge about keeping warm.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Recalling Facts And Details
A set of comprehension task cards to help students recall facts and details when reading.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Understand Sequence
A set of comprehension task cards to help students understand sequence when reading.
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The Escape Key - Story and Task Cards
An exciting short story about escaping a maze with a set of task cards to explore after the text has been read.
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Comprehension - Plums For Mrs Smith
A comprehension activity using a recount for lower grades.
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NAPLAN Reading Magazine – Year 5 - PowerPoint
5 reading texts with multiple choice questions for NAPLAN Reading Year 5 on PowerPoint.
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NAPLAN Reading Magazine – Year 3 - PowerPoint
5 reading texts with multiple choice questions for NAPLAN Reading Year 3 on PowerPoint.
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Rio de Janeiro - Comprehension Task
A comprehension task that encourages students to apply a range of comprehension skills when finding out interesting fun facts about Rio.
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Exploring Australia’s Geothermal Hot Springs Worksheet Pack
Explore examples of geothermal energy in Australia with a Geothermal Hot Springs Worksheet Pack.
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Reflecting on Resilience Worksheets (4-5)
Improve student resilience and reading comprehension skills with our Reflecting on Resilience Worksheets.
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Comparing Assertions Worksheet Pack
Get your students to compare assertions with this engaging set of worksheets designed to help students distinguish between strong and weak persuasive writing.
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Year 1 Magazine – "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 3) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with Issue 3 of Teach Starter’s Year 1 magazine.
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Australian Conservationists: John Walmsley – Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about Dr John Walmsley and his conservation work with this 2-page reading passage and accompanying comprehension questions.
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Australian Conservationists: Tim Flannery – Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about Tim Flannery and his conservation work with this 2-page reading passage and accompanying comprehension questions.