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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Debating and Scrutinising Bills - Comprehension Worksheets
Explore how bills are debated and scrutinised in the Australian Federal Parliament with this differentiated reading comprehension activity.
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Developing and Introducing Bills – Comprehension Worksheets
Explore how bills are introduced and developed through the parliamentary process with this differentiated reading comprehension activity.
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What's the Connection? Worksheet
Use this reading skills worksheet to help your students learn about the types of text connections: text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world.
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Types of Characters - Poster
Remind students about the types of characters that can be found in stories with this colourful classroom poster.
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Beginning, Middle and End Mini-Book - The Three Little Pigs
Teach your students about the beginning, middle and end of a story with this mini-book retell of The Three Little Pigs.
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Comprehension Worksheets - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Read to learn about the Great Pacific Garbage patch with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack.
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Malala Yousafzai Biography for Students with Worksheets
Introduce young learners to an inspiring changemaker with this Malala Yousafzai biography for students with accompanying worksheets.
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Earth Day Comprehension and Cloze Worksheets
Enhance your students' comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills with this nonfiction Earth Day passage and accompanying activities.
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Bat Facts and Opinions Worksheet
Identify facts and opinions with a Halloween worksheet activity about bats.
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My Pop! - Read and Respond Worksheet
A cute narrative with accompanying worksheet.
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A Thinker Like Me - Read and Respond Worksheet
A comprehension activity related to a poem.
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Character Traits Graphic Organiser
Describe the most notable mental and moral qualities of a real or fictional person.
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Year 4 Magazine - "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 1) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with Issue 1 of Teach Starter's Year 4 magazine.
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Liquid Ice – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a fake advertisement from the Year 5 magazine (Issue 3).
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Figurative Language Flip Book
A flip book template for students to identify examples of figurative language.
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5 Fascinating Facts About Dinosaurs – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a fascinating facts article from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 2).
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The Waterfall – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a poem from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 2).
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The Discovery of Tutankhamen's Tomb – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an information report from the Year 6 magazine (Issue 3).
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Literature Study Task Cards (Upper Primary)
Explore the wonders of children's literature with this set of 14 literature study task cards for upper primary students.
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Literature Study Task Cards (Lower Primary)
Explore the wonders of children's literature with this set of 12 literature study task cards for lower primary students.
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Letter to the Editor (Sugary Snacks Ban) – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a letter to the editor from the Year 5 magazine (Issue 3).
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10 Fascinating Facts About Water – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 3).
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Letter to the Editor (Voting Rights) – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a letter to the editor from the Year 6 magazine (Issue 3).
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The Birthday Ride – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 3).
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Healthy Mind, Healthy Body: The Value of Vegetables – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic from the Year 5 magazine (Issue 2).
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Year 3 Magazine - "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 2) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with Issue 2 of Teach Starter’s Year 3 magazine.
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Art Attack! Line – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 3).
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Recess Rules: The More the Merrier – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic about the importance of making a variety of friendships.
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Year 3 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 3 magazine.
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Human Histories: World Explorers – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about some world explorers and their achievements.
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Before, During and After Reading Worksheet
A worksheet to use when asking questions before, during and after reading.
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Author's Purpose - Sorting Worksheet
A teaching resource to help teach your students the different reasons authors may write.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Teaching Presentations
- Reading Comprehension Games
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- 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