Reading Comprehension Teaching Resources
Explore printable worksheets, digital activities and more to teach reading comprehension strategies and skills in your elementary classroom. Created by teachers, for teachers, the teaching resources in this collection are curriculum-aligned 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 a variety of options to make lesson planning easier this school year so your students will be able to identify the main idea of a text, draw inferences, remember key details and more.
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!
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 elementary 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 recognize and understand individual words, but it also involves the ability to recognize patterns and relationships within sentences and paragraphs.
On top of that is the ability to make inferences and draw conclusions based on the information presented.
Yes, there's a lot packed in there!
How to Teach Reading Comprehension
To develop reading comprehension, students need 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 you teach reading comprehension? Like many of those foundational skills we teach in elementary grades, this isn't something kids learn in a single lesson, unit or even one school year.
Teaching reading comprehension is going to stretch from kindergarten and first grade all the way through the rest of a child's academic career (at least on the pre-college levels).
That said, here are some activities to make use of as you approach teaching reading comprehension as an elementary teacher:
- Pre-Reading Activities — Brainstorming, KWL charts, prediction exercises and other "pre-reading" activities will help your students activate their prior knowledge, build background knowledge and set a purpose for reading. These are all key to developing their comprehension.
- During-Reading Strategies — Teaching your students to ask questions, summarize, visualize and make connections will give students the know-how they need to monitor their comprehension as they read.
- Post-Reading Activities — Reading comprehension doesn't stop when kids get to the last page of a text. It's only just beginning. That's why it's important to make sure your lesson plans include activities that help students deepen their understanding of the text and develop critical thinking skills. Examples of post-reading activities that can help build these skills include discussions, debates and written responses.
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Read and Draw - Halloween Worksheets
Practice reading comprehension skills with an exciting read-and-draw comprehension worksheet for 4th grade.
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Who Was Kiki Camarena? 3rd Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Download these 3rd grade reading comprehension worksheets that explore the story of Kiki Camarena while helping students build essential literacy skills.
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Amelia Earhart Constructed Response Worksheet
Use this passage, second grade writing prompt, and worksheet to help students write a constructed response paragraph about Amelia Earhart.
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Boston Tea Party - RACES Writing Strategy Worksheet
Integrate reading, writing, and American history with a worksheet about the Boston Tea Party using the RACES writing strategy for text evidence.
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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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Halloween Poems Activity Pack
Read, share, and annotate Halloween Poems with a printable Halloween Poetry Activity Pack.
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Literary Plot Elements - Graphic Organizer
Familiarize students with finding the 5 elements of plot in a literary text.
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Advertisement Examples and Analysis Worksheets
Use these advertisement examples with accompanying analysis worksheets to teach your students about the purpose, structure and language features of product advertisements.
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Lewis and Clark Worksheet - RACES Writing Strategy
Practice using the RACES writing strategy for text evidence with a Lewis and Clark Passage, graphic organizer, and worksheet.
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Facts and Details Task Cards and Worksheets
Use these facts and details reading comprehension task cards to help your students locate, remember and interpret important information when reading various texts.
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What is the Author's Purpose? Escape Room
Get your students excited to practice understanding what is the author’s purpose with this engaging escape room activity.
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Main Idea Comprehension Task Cards and Worksheets
Download this set of comprehension task cards to help students find the main idea when reading.
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Comprehension Worksheets - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Read and learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with a reading comprehension passage and worksheet pack.
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Exploring Earthquakes Comprehension Worksheets
Give your students a clear, engaging introduction to earthquakes, what causes them, and how scientists measure them with printable Earthquakes Comprehension Worksheets.
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Should Smartphones Be Allowed in Class? Comprehension Worksheets
Decide if cellphones should be allowed in class and boost comprehension skills with a reading passage and comprehension test.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practice identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Phases of the Moon – Comprehension Worksheet
Analyze different moon phases and how their visual appearances change over time with this reading comprehension worksheet.
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Free Character Traits List
Teach your students to analyze characters more effectively by providing them with a list of character traits.
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S.W.B.S.T. Summarizing Graphic Organizer
Use this printable SWBST strategy graphic organizer with students to write a summary for a fictional piece of text.
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Developing Narrative Features PowerPoint - Grade 5 and Grade 6
A 26-slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the characteristics and craft of composing a narrative text.
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Free Story Prediction Worksheet
Encourage students to think critically before reading with this Story Prediction Worksheet.
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Celebrity Biography Worksheets - Reading Comprehension Worksheets 3rd-4th
Download our celebrity biography reading comprehension worksheets PDF resource to help your 3rd and 4th graders practice reading comprehension skills.
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Beginning, Middle End Worksheets
Explore the main structure and story elements in a short story with these beginning, middle and end worksheets.
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The Force of Gravity Comprehension Worksheets
Download this gravity worksheet to teach your 3rd grade students about the force of gravity and its impact on our daily lives.
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Story Elements Graphic Organizers – Portrait
Encourage your students to write and draw about various story elements with this set of differentiated graphic organizers.
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Main Idea and Details Worksheets
Practice finding the main idea and supporting detail with this pack of main idea worksheets.
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Main Idea and Details in Nonfiction Text — Instructional Slide Deck
Build skills in identifying main idea and details in nonfiction texts with an instructional slide deck for primary grades.
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Making Reading Connections Using Comics
Get your students making reading connections with these engaging comics and accompanying worksheets that help students link what they read to their own experiences, other texts and the wider world.
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Making Connections Reading Comprehension Passages
Teach the making connections reading comprehension strategy with this set of five engaging short stories and differentiated graphic organizers that help students build meaningful text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections.
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Concepts About Print Assessment Checklists
Use these concepts of print assessment checklists to check all aspects of print are understood.
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Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Practice (3rd Grade)
Use this Thanksgiving reading comprehension pack to support students in learning about the history of Thanksgiving.
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What Are Pollinators? Worksheet Pack
Introduce your students to the world of plants and pollination with a printable Pollinators Worksheet Pack.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Games
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Flashcards
- Reading Comprehension for Pre-K
- Reading Comprehension for Kindergarten
- Reading Comprehension for 1st Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 2nd Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 3rd Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 4th Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 5th Grade
- Reading Comprehension for 6th Grade