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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Welcome to Scotland! – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a country profile from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 2).
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Robot Hide and Seek – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative 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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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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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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Jamie Oliver Biography – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a biography from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
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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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10 Fascinating Facts About Water – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 3).
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Year 5 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 5 magazine.
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How Does Water Get to Our Taps? – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an information report from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 2).
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10 Fascinating Facts About Beaches – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about beaches.
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Summarising a Story Flipbook
A template for students to use when summarising a story.
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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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Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: Find Your Sport – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic about the importance of physical activity to a healthy lifestyle.
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Superfoods: What's for Lunch? – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic about the importance of eating a healthy lunch.
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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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Year 6 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 6 magazine.
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Poetry Vocabulary Words – Word Wall
Display and discuss vocabulary related to poetry and figurative language with a set of 30 word wall cards.
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Out of the Book - Comprehension Board Game
A fun comprehension strategy board game for students to play during literacy rotations.
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The Poet's Lament - Comprehension
A comprehension activity using a poem.
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When Winter Comes - Keeping Warm Worksheet
A poem to activate students' prior knowledge about keeping warm.
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Fiction or Non-Fiction? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this fiction and non-fiction worksheet when teaching your students about the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts.
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Compare and Contrast - Objects Worksheets
A pack of 5 worksheets comparing and contrasting pictures of similar objects.
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Compare and Contrast - Vocabulary Poster
A poster detailing vocabulary used when comparing and contrasting.
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Cause and Effect - Scenario Worksheet
A worksheet and answer sheet to use when teaching students the cause and effect comprehension strategy.
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Book Report Mini Book
Have students write about their favourite literature with this fun-sized mini-book.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Recognising Cause And Effect
A set of comprehension task cards to help students recognise cause and effect when reading.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Compare And Contrast
A set of comprehension task cards to help students compare and contrast 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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'I Can' Statements - Comprehension (Middle Primary)
A set of 16 'I can' statement cards focusing on comprehension for middle primary.
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Reading Detectives Bookmarks
8 colourful reading detective bookmarks to use during guided reading sessions in the classroom.
- 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