Reading Comprehension Teaching Resources
Explore printable reading comprehension worksheets, digital activities and more to teach reading comprehension strategies in your primary classroom. Created by teachers, for teachers, the teaching resources in this collection are aligned with the Australian curriculum and have undergone a careful review by a member of our expert teaching team.
You'll find editable versions to easily differentiate your instruction for individual students, plus various options to make your lesson planning easier this school year!
New to teaching this portion of the English curriculum or just looking for fresh and engaging ways to teach reading comprehension strategies? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a simple definition of reading comprehension, a look at different strategies students can use and more!
What Is Reading Comprehension?
We'll start at the beginning! Reading comprehension is a skill that's hard to overestimate in terms of its importance for early years students to develop.
Defined as the ability to understand and interpret written language, reading comprehension involves the process of decoding text, extracting meaning from it, and then integrating that meaning with prior knowledge and understanding.
Not only does comprehension comprise the ability to recognise and understand individual words, but it also involves the ability to recognise patterns and relationships within sentences and paragraphs, as well as the ability to make inferences and draw conclusions based on the information presented.
This isn't just important for reading, of course.
Comprehension is all about making meaning, and it includes various levels of understanding, including:
- Literal
- Inferential
- Evaluative
- Critical
If you think about it, we rely on these skills on a daily basis — when we notice the stooped shoulders of a partner as they walk in the door or when we listen to the weather report and observe how heavily laden the sky is with grey clouds.
To develop those same skills in a reading context, our students need to build a variety of language skills, such as vocabulary knowledge, grammar and syntax, as well as cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and critical thinking.
So how do they get there? Let's talk strategies!
What Are Reading Comprehension Strategies?
As you well know, students don't start off being able to comprehend every single thing they read. But teaching them strategies to understand better and retain information will allow them to go from recognising individual words to understanding a range of texts.
Some common reading comprehension strategies include:
- Previewing — This is the process of skimming the text before reading it in detail to get an overall sense of what it is about.
- Activating Prior Knowledge — Students can draw on existing knowledge and experience to help them understand new information, such as a new text.
- Making Connections — This strategy focuses on teaching students to make connections between a text and their own experiences and understandings. Research into the science of reading has shown enhanced comprehension when students are able to connect new information to information they already know.
- Questioning — In this comprehension strategy, students ask and answer questions to clarify the meaning of the text and deepen their understanding. When you centre questioning activities around the familiar open-ended prompts of who, what, when, where, how, why, and which, students assert their understanding and identify any gaps in their comprehension of the text. Questions can be posed by a teacher, by their peers, or by the students themselves.
- Visualising — Visualisation provides both teachers and students with another means to extend their exploration of a text and deepen understanding. This reading comprehension strategy asks students to create and describe an image in their mind, centered around a place, situation, or character in the text. Visualising has been proven in research to improve student recall! Using the five senses is a great way to scaffold student comprehension through visualising.
- Summarising — Summarising is a reading comprehension strategy that asks students to reflect on the text and communicate their understanding of it. A well-formed summary is made up of the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea, showing that the student has understood what they’ve read well enough to write a summary that’s not merely a repetition of the text.
- When summarising, students may complete one or more of the following:
- Recount the text in their own words
- Identify the main idea, topic or purpose
- List key words or phrases
- Identify structural elements of the genre
- Using the SWBST process can help students with this reading comprehension strategy. The steps in the SWBST process are:
- Somebody
- Wanted
- But
- So
- Then
- When summarising, students may complete one or more of the following:
- Inferring — The process of drawing conclusions based on clues or evidence presented in the text is called inferring, and it involves readers using what they know and pairing it with what they read in the text to make a conclusion. You may also call this 'reading between lines!'
- Monitoring Comprehension — When monitoring comprehension, students reflect on and assess their understanding as they progress through the text. In this metacognitive process, students may ask themselves questions like 'Is this making sense?' or 'Do I need to read this again?'
- Some comprehension strategies that may be effective may include going back to reread a section of a text, slowing down or speeding up your reading rate, and using text features to help understand difficult parts of a passage. All of these are active reading strategies that students can do to help them better understand what they are reading, while they are reading!
- While monitoring asks students to identify hurdles and barriers, students also benefit from connecting this reading comprehension strategy with explicit strategies to help them pass their hurdles.
All of these comprehension strategies can be taught and practised explicitly.
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Christmas Around the World - Year 3 Reading Comprehension
Discover how Christmas is celebrated in the northern and southern hemispheres with printable reading comprehension sheets for Year 3.
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The Christmas Pickle Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about the Christmas Pickle Tradition and practise reading comprehension skills with a printable reading passage worksheet pack.
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Christmas in Japan - Holidays Around the World Mini Book
Introduce your students to Japanese Christmas traditions and decorations with a printable Christmas in Japan Mini Book.
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Christmas Around the World Mini Book - Germany
Introduce your students to Germany's Christmas traditions and decorations with a printable Christmas Around the World Mini Book.
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Christmas in France - Mini Book for Kids
Introduce your students to Christmas traditions in France with a printable Christmas Around the World Mini Book.
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Christmas Finger Puppets Template
Craft a fun set of Christmas finger puppets for your students to have fun with during dramatic play.
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Christmas in Egypt – Celebrations Around the World Mini Book
Introduce your students to Egyptian Christmas traditions with a printable Christmas in Egypt Mini Book.
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Book Review Worksheet
A book review and summary card for comprehension learning.
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Free Wanted Poster Template Pack
Use a 'Wanted' poster template pack to encourage your students to research and write about historic figures and more!
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Let's Research! Reindeer Facts for Kids PowerPoint
Use this instructional Google Slide or PowerPoint to guide your students through a reindeer research project!
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Great Barrier Reef Comprehension and Note Taking Worksheet
Learn about The Great Barrier Reef with a reading comprehension and note-taking activity.
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Visual Literacy Techniques Poster Pack
Teach your students how to uncover hidden meanings in images with this vibrant set of Visual Literacy Technique Posters!
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Character Profile Template Pack
Explore the personality, appearance, feelings and actions of a character from a narrative with this printable character profile templates.
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Giant Squid Reading Comprehension Worksheets - Year 5
Read and learn about the features and adaptations of the giant squid with reading comprehension worksheets for years 5 and 6.
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Free Desert Animal Adaptations Worksheets - Comprehension
Discover desert animal adaptations with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack for Grade 4.
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Polar Bear Adaptations Reading Comprehension Pack
Discover polar bear structural adaptations with a set of printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 3.
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Figurative Language Poster Pack
Remind your students about the most common types of figurative language with this set of classroom display posters.
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Read & Comprehend Worksheets - Celebrity Biography Passages
Download our celebrity biography reading comprehension worksheets to help your Year 4 and 5 students practise reading comprehension skills.
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Drowning in Plastic – Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Teach your students facts about ocean pollution with this comprehensive article with accompanying comprehension activities.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practise identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Common Consonant Digraphs (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Character Traits, Feelings and Appearance - Posters
A set of 3 posters depicting words and phrases that can be used to describe a character's personality, feelings and appearance.
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What’s the Heading? Task Cards
Explore the heading text feature with this set of task cards perfect for literacy groups.
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The Water Cycle – Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Enhance your students’ comprehension and science vocabulary skills with this water cycle worksheet.
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Figurative Language Sorting Activity
Explore figurative language in context with this set of 28 sorting cards.
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Literary Devices Poster Pack
Explore the various literary devices used by authors with the set of colourful classroom posters.
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Baby Animals Reading Worksheets - Year 1-2
Learn about animals and their babies with a pack of printable Animal Babies Reading Worksheets for Years 1 & 2.
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Penguin Adaptations - Year 3 Reading Comprehension
Explore the fascinating world of penguins and their adaptations with our set of printable Year 3 Reading Comprehension worksheets.
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Arctic Fox Adaptations - Free Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn about Arctic fox adaptations with a set of free Reading Comprehension Worksheets for Years 2 and 3.
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Monster Magic - Reading Comprehension Activity
Read and comprehend a set of instructions to create a magical monster!
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Phases of the Moon – Comprehension Worksheet
Analyse different moon phases and how their visual appearances change over time with this reading comprehension worksheet.
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Story Beginning, Middle and End Graphic Organiser
Help your students write and draw about the beginning, middle and end of stories with this set of differentiated graphic organisers.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Teaching Presentations
- Reading Comprehension Games
- Reading Comprehension for Foundation Year
- Reading Comprehension for Year 1
- Reading Comprehension for Year 2
- Reading Comprehension for Year 3
- Reading Comprehension for Year 4
- Reading Comprehension for Year 5
- Reading Comprehension for Year 6
- Reading Comprehension for Year 7