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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All About Penguins - Year 1 Leveled Readers
Chill out with a good book and build reading skills with a printable penguin leveled reader for Year 1.
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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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Foldable Inferencing Template
Practise making inferences with this foldable template.
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Non-Fiction Text Features – Scavenger Hunt Flipbook
Get students exploring informational text features with this set of scavenger hunt flipbooks perfect for primary students.
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Inferring and Drawing Conclusions Poster
A poster highlighting how to draw conclusions and make inferences when reading a piece of text.
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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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Hansel and Gretel Retelling Activity Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for Hansel and Gretel.
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Women In World War One Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Read to learn about women in World War I with a printable reading passage and comprehension worksheet.
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Halloween vs. Dia De Los Muertos - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Integrate reading, writing, and celebration of world cultures with differentiated paired passages comparing Halloween and Dia de los Muertos.
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Retelling a Story Workbook
Help your students retain the elements of a retell with this printable retelling stories student workbook.
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Retelling Stories Paper Chains Template
Get crafty with this fun retelling stories activity where students use paper chains to create a chain for a story they have read in class.
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Retelling Stories Wheel Template
Explore story retells with this engaging story retell wheel template.
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Comprehension - What Are Coding Systems?
Discover the history of technologies and coding systems with a reading comprehension activity.
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The History of Codes - Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about the history and development of Morse code with a comprehension worksheet.
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Story Elements Worksheets – The Ants and the Grasshopper
Practise identifying the story characters, settings and main events with this set of worksheets based on a traditional tale.
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Internal and External Character Traits - Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the internal and external traits of story characters with this differentiated cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Character or Not? - Interactive Activity
Explore the difference between characters and non-characters with this digital learning activity.
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Character or Not? - Colouring Worksheet
Explore the difference between characters and non-characters with this colouring worksheet.
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Main Idea Kettle Writing Template
Create a cute kettle template to help students understands the main idea and supporting detail while reading.
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Finding the Main Idea Anchor Chart
Build skills in identifying main idea and details in nonfiction texts with a main idea poster chart for primary students.
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Story Settings - Brochure Template
Encourage your students to identify story settings in the books they read with this brochure template.
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Narrative Features Worksheets - Hey Diddle Diddle
Identify characters, settings and parts of a story with early years reading worksheets featuring the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme.
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Hickory Dickory Dock Sequencing Activity Cards
Read and retell the story found within the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock with a set of retell sequencing cards.
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Narrative Characters Teaching Presentation - Humpty Dumpty
Engage young readers in texts and learn about characters with an instructional slide deck featuring the Humpty Dumpty rhyme.
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Readers' Theatre - Itsy Bitsy Spider Read and Retell Activity
Engage young readers in texts with a dramatic reading of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and accompanying story retelling activity.
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Elements of Plot Teaching Presentation
Teach your students about the elements of a story with this engaging teaching presentation.
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Character Analysis Task Cards
Use these task cards to practise analysing characters within any fictional text.
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Explore a Dreaming Story – Worksheet
Use this template to explore First Nations’ Dreaming stories and unlock how they connect to Country.
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5 Fun Facts About Ants - Read and Respond Worksheet
A '5 fun facts ...' information sheet and worksheet.
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A Thinker Like Me - Read and Respond Worksheet
A comprehension activity related to a poem.
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Reading Response Making Connections – Template
A comprehension template for students to learn how to make connections.
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Character Profile Flip Book - Lower Primary
Explore story characters with this flipbook template for lower primary students.
- 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