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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Main Idea Comprehension Task Cards
Download this set of comprehension task cards to help students find the main idea when reading.
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Alliteration Poem Poster and Templates
Use this alliteration poem example and accompanying worksheets to teach your students how to write an alliteration poem.
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Summarising a Story Graphic Organisers
Use these graphic organisers to help students when summarising a story.
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Making Predictions Using Comics Activity Pack
Use these comics and matching prediction worksheets when learning about how to make predictions using images, titles and context clues while reading.
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Reading Comprehension With Pictures Worksheets
Download the Reading Comprehension with Picture Worksheets today and help your students become confident, visual readers!
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Making Predictions Reading Comprehension Worksheet Pack
Improve students' reading comprehension with our Making Predictions Reading Comprehension Worksheet Pack, which features engaging short stories.
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Making Predictions Reading Passages Worksheets
Use these making predictions reading passages to get your students making informed predictions before and after reading.
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What Is Climate Change? Worksheet Pack
Teach your students about the perils of climate change with this comprehensive article with accompanying comprehension questions.
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Colour-Coding Summarising Nonfiction Text Worksheets
Practise summarising small nonfiction texts with this fun colour-coding set of worksheets.
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Main Idea Nonfiction Worksheets
Use these main idea nonfiction worksheets to help students confidently identify key ideas and supporting details in engaging, real-world texts.
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Types of Figurative Language - Worksheet
Practise identifying and creating examples of figurative language with this printable worksheet.
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Onomatopoeia Poems Poster and Templates
Use this onomatopoeia poem poster and accompanying template to teach your students how to write an onomatopoeia poem.
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Reading Comprehension Strategies PowerPoint - Questioning
A 15 slide editable PowerPoint template explaining the reading comprehension strategy of questioning.
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The Park - Comprehension
A comprehension activity using poetry.
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Fossicking for Fossils – Comprehension Worksheet
Use a Fossil Comprehension worksheet to teach your year 5 and 6 students about what fossils are, how they’re formed, and more!
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Comprehension Task Cards Summarising
Practise summarising text with these relevant events-based texts.
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Super Six Reading Comprehension Question Cards
Help students with six different comprehension skills with this set of super 6 comprehension task cards and mats.
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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 3-5.
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Paired Passage Worksheets-Mammals vs. Reptiles
Compare mammals vs. reptiles and add to your reading instruction with leveled nonfiction, compare and contrast passages, and worksheets.
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The Wonders of the Human Body – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an information report from the Year 6 magazine (Issue 2).
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Teamwork and Sportsmanship – Comic and Comprehension Worksheet
Teach your students about teamwork and sportsmanship with this soccer-themed comic, perfect for use during National Simultaneous Storytime 2026.
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In My Eyes (Poem) - Comprehension
A comprehension activity using poetry.
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The Gingerbread Man - Comprehension Worksheet
Develop your students' reading comprehension skills with a well-known fairy tale.
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Making Predictions Reading Strategy PowerPoint
Use these Making Predictions Reading Strategy teaching slides when introducing the concept of predicting during reading to your early years students.
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Helpful Honey Bees Worksheet Pack - Year 2 Comprehension
Read and learn about honey bees with a Printable Honey Bees Worksheet Pack for year 2.
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Reading Monitoring Comprehension Activity Pack
Explore easy ways to monitor comprehension with this quick draw activity pack perfect for primary students.
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Poison Dart Frog Adaptations – Year 5 Reading Worksheets
Explore the adaptations of a poison dart frog with printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 5.
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Koala Adaptations Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Learn about the physical and behavioural adaptations of the koala with a set of printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 4-5.
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Formation of Earth - Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Combine reading and science content with a reading comprehension worksheet that focuses on the formation of Earth.
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The Sinking of the RMS Titanic - Historical Recounts Comparison Task
A comprehension task to enable students to compare literary historical recounts and factual historical recounts.
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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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Story Elements Poster Set
Display this story elements poster set in your classroom when learning about narrative texts.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Teaching Presentations
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- 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