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
Summarising Nonfiction Teaching Slides
Build summarising skills with nonfiction texts using these teaching slides.
- Plus Plan
Summarising Poster Set
Learn about how to effectively summarise a piece of text with this classroom poster set.
- Free Plan
Narrative Elements Graphic Organisers – Portrait
Encourage your students to write and draw about various story elements with this set of differentiated graphic organisers.
- Plus Plan
The History of Australia's Parliamentary System - Comprehension Worksheets
Explore the ins and outs of Australia’s parliamentary history with this reading comprehension activity.
- Plus Plan
Interpreting Figurative Language - Worksheets
Explore figurative language in poetry with this age-appropriate poem and accompanying vocabulary questions.
- Plus Plan
Making Text Connections Graphic Organiser (Years 3–6)
A graphic organiser to use with students when making connections with a text.
- Plus Plan
Year 3 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 3 magazine.
- Plus Plan
10 Fascinating Facts About Water – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 2 magazine (Issue 3).
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Analysing Poetry Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to analyse poetry using the SMILE technique with this comprehensive and age-appropriate slide deck.
- Plus Plan
Tiddalick the Frog Dreaming Story Sequencing Activity Cards
Use these Tiddalick the Frog sequencing activity cards as a resource for teaching Australian Dreaming Stories.
- Plus Plan
60 Comprehension Strategy Task Cards
A 144 page comprehension resource pack to help students apply comprehension strategies when reading.
- Plus Plan
Exploring Poetry Workbook
Teach your students about all things poetry with this jam-packed poetry workbook created especially for primary school students.
- Plus Plan
Fiction and Non-Fiction Cloze Activities
A set of 7 fiction and non-fiction cloze worksheets with answer sheets.
- Plus Plan
Beginning, Middle and End of Story Poster Set
Remind students of the elements that make up the beginning, middle and end of a story with this set of three posters.
- Plus Plan
Adapt a Short Story – Change the Complication
Explore the role the complication of a story plays within narrative structure with this engaging and fully scaffolded writing project booklet.
- Plus Plan
Adapt a Short Story – Change the Narrative Setting
Explore the role the narrative setting plays within a story with this engaging and fully scaffolded writing project booklet for primary students.
- Plus Plan
The Needs of Birds – Comprehension Worksheet
Explore the needs of birds and build reading comprehension skills with a printable Year 1 reading passage and comprehension activity.
- Plus Plan
Different Types of Texts Booklet - Butterfly Lifecycle
Identify how similar topics and information can be presented in different types of texts with this Butterfly Lifecycle Text Comparison booklet.
- Plus Plan
Making Connections Text to Self Poster Pack
Explore making connections with these text to self, text to text and text to world posters for the classroom.
- Plus Plan
Elements of Visual Literacy Worksheets
Teach the elements of visual literacy with this engaging worksheet pack designed to help primary students analyse images and deepen their critical thinking skills.
- Plus Plan
Bias in Writing Worksheet Pack
Teach bias in writing with ease using this engaging worksheet pack designed to help upper primary students recognise and analyse bias across different texts.
- Plus Plan
Picture Story Sequencing Worksheets
Help your students build strong visual literacy skills with these Picture Story Sequencing cut and paste worksheet pack.
- Free Plan
Making Predictions from Sentences Worksheets
Practise making predictions with sentences using this set of making predictions worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Australian Endangered Species Snapshots – Comprehension Worksheet
Explore some Australian endangered species with your students using this set of reading passages with comprehension questions.
- Plus Plan
Fennec Fox Adaptations - Close Reading Worksheets
Read and learn about Fennec Fox adaptations with a set of printable Reading Comprehension Worksheets for Year 5.
- Plus Plan
Summarising Fiction Poster Set
Help students remember what to include in a summary of a fiction text with this easy to use SWBST acronym.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
First Nations Instruments Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Use First Nations Instruments Reading Comprehension Worksheets to help your Year Two students learn about some traditional First Nations Australians musical instruments and their characteristic sounds.
- Free Plan
Uses of Magnets Comprehension Worksheet
Download this magnets worksheet to teach your Year 4 students about the uses of magnets in our everyday lives.
- Plus Plan
Non-Fiction Text Features Flipbook – Read and Find
Get your students to find text features in non-fiction books with this student-centred flipbook activity perfect for literacy groups.
- Plus Plan
Non-Fiction Visual Features Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this visual text features worksheet when exploring text features such as photographs, maps, charts and diagrams with your students.
- 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