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.
- Plus Plan
Year Two Reading Comprehension Questions - Bloom's Taxonomy
Grow comprehension skills with our Year Two Reading Comprehension Bloom’s Taxonomy Task Cards.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension Monitoring Strategies PowerPoint
Use this Comprehension Monitoring Strategies PowerPoint to guide students through the learning of self monitoring while reading.
- Free Plan
Fact and Opinion Graphic Organiser
Use this fact and opinion graphic organiser to get your students writing facts and opinions for a variety of topics.
- Plus Plan
Reading Comprehension Symbols Poster Pack
Use these Reading Comprehension Symbols posters to help students keep track of their comprehension during reading.
- Plus Plan
Monitor and Clarify Reading Strategy Digital Task Cards
Help students gain more practise in monitoring while reading using these Monitoring and Clarifying Reading Strategy Practise digital task cards.
- Plus Plan
Story Prediction Worksheets for Early Years
Explore the comprehension strategy of prediction using these Story Prediction Worksheets created specifically for the early years classroom.
- Plus Plan
Predict What Will Happen Next – Picture Task Cards
Use our Predict What Will Happen Next – Picture Task Cards to practice making predictions with your young learners.
- Plus Plan
Story Prediction Activities Digital Quiz
Assess predicting skills with this Making Predictions Activities digital quiz.
- Plus Plan
Making Predictions Game Board
Use this Making Predictions Game Board to engage students in making predictions with short text.
- Plus Plan
Making Predictions Before, During, After Reading Bookmark
Support student comprehension with these Making Predictions Before, During and After Bookmarks.
- Plus Plan
Making Predictions Comprehension Strategy: Digital Task Cards
Enhance reading comprehension with these Making Predictions Comprehension Strategy Digital Task Cards, where students read short stories, predict what happens next, and justify their thinking using text evidence.
- Plus Plan
Reciprocal Teaching Role Cards
Assign reciprocal style teaching roles to your students during small-group reading sessions with this set of 4 reciprocal teaching role cards.
- Plus Plan
Label the Non-Fiction Text Features Worksheets
Have your students label text features in non-fiction texts with this set of three differentiation text features worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Non-Fiction Text Features – Scavenger Hunt Flipbook
Get students exploring informational text features with this set of scavenger hunt flipbooks perfect for primary students.
- Plus Plan
Let's Infer! Reading Worksheet
Boost reading comprehension with our 2-page writing worksheet that helps students practice making inferences.
- Plus Plan
5 Finger Retell Graphic Organisers
Help students sort out their thoughts during retelling with this set of three 5 finger retelling graphic organisers.
- Plus Plan
Empathy vs. Sympathy Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Challenge your students to learn the differences between empathy and sympathy with this reading comprehension worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Compare and Contrast Worksheets - Neil Armstrong vs. Amelia Earhart
Compare and contrast Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart with differentiated reading comprehension worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Types of Soils – Comprehension Worksheets
Explore the properties of sand, silt, loam and clay with a set of 4 reading passages with accompanying comprehension questions.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - What Are Coding Systems?
Discover the history of technologies and coding systems with a reading comprehension activity.
- Plus Plan
Reading Comprehension Worksheets - The History of Electricity
Read to learn about the history of electricity with printable reading comprehension worksheets.
- Plus Plan
The History of Codes - Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about the history and development of Morse code with a comprehension worksheet.
- Free Plan
Nonfiction Summary Checklist
Give your students a checklist when summarising nonfiction texts to make sure they include everything required.
- Plus Plan
Debating and Scrutinising Bills - Comprehension Worksheets
Explore how bills are debated and scrutinised in the Australian Federal Parliament with this differentiated reading comprehension activity.
- Plus Plan
Types of Characters - Poster
Remind students about the types of characters that can be found in stories with this colourful classroom poster.
- Plus Plan
Main Idea and Detail Puzzle
Practise deciphering the main idea from the supporting detail with this printable puzzle.
- Plus Plan
Main Idea and Details - Interactive Peg Cards
Practise identifying the main idea with these interactive peg cards.
- Plus Plan
Story Characters - Mini Book
Teach your little learners about the various types of story characters with this fun-sized mini-book.
- Plus Plan
Narrative Elements - Worksheet
Practise identifying characters, settings, problems and solutions in fictional texts with this set of worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Finding the Main Idea in Nonfiction Text Worksheet
Identify supporting evidence for the main idea of an informational text passage and answer the comprehension questions.
- Plus Plan
Earth, Sun and Moon – Comprehension Worksheet
Read about and compare physical characteristics of the Eath, sun and moon with this reading comprehension sheet.
- Plus Plan
Humpty Dumpty Off the Wall – Comprehension Worksheet
Integrate nursery rhymes and early reading comprehension skills with a Humpty Dumpty reading passage and comprehension questions.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Teaching Presentations
- Reading Comprehension Games
- Reading Comprehension Flashcards
- 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