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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Henry Ford Worksheet- RACES Writing Strategy
Provide students with Social Studies and Writing instruction using the RACES strategy for constructed response paragraphs.
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Urbanization Constructed Response Worksheet
Use this nonfiction constructed response worksheet to teach your students about urbanization.
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Elements of Plot Teaching Presentation
Teach them to your students with a Plot Elements Teaching presentation.
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Westward Expansion Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Build reading comprehension skills with a Westward Expansion reading passage and assessment.
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Declaration of Independence- Constructed Response Passage Worksheet
Blend reading, writing, and historical concepts with the Declaration of Independence worksheet.
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Industrial Revolution Worksheet - Constructed Response
Blend reading, writing, and history concepts surrounding the Industrial Revolution with a constructed response worksheet and graphic organizer.
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Point of View Task Cards - Beginner Set
Use these colorful, fun task cards to help your beginning reader identify first, and third-person point of view (POV)
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Soccer vs. Football -Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Differentiate reading instruction with nonfiction texts, compare and contrast activities, and response to text writing opportunities.
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Idioms Bingo Game
Build vocabulary and have fun with a classroom game of Idiom Bingo.
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Multiple Meaning Word Puzzles
Match words to their many meanings using this set of 14 word + multiple definitions puzzle cards.
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Identifying Idioms and Their Meanings - Worksheet
A worksheet to practice identifying idioms and their meaning.
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Making Connections Worksheet
Practice making connections while reading a piece of text with this graphic organizer.
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Back to School Today! Poem for Kids
Ease back-to-school jitters and launch your students into a love of poetry with a short poem for kids written just for the first day of school!
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Poetry Task Cards
A set of 20 task cards to practice different elements of peotry.
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Writing With Alliteration Worksheet
Identify and create alliteration patterns in texts.
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Making Text Connections Recording Sheet
Make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections when reading a piece of text with this recording sheet
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Plot Elements Worksheet - "The Gift of Magi"
Using the companion text “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, students will diagram the narrative structure of the story on the included plot elements worksheet.
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Onomatopoeia Poster
A poster providing a definition and examples of onomatopoeia.
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Alliteration Poster For Young Students
A poster to use with young students when teaching alliteration.
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Grade 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 Grade 5 magazine.
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Figurative Language - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore figurative language in multiple ways with the set of 24 task cards.
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Primary Weekly Poetry Guide - Week 1
Use this weekly poetry guide to celebrate National Poetry Month in your primary classroom.
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Character Traits Graphic Organizer
Describe the most notable mental and moral qualities of a real or fictional person.
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New Year's Celebrations - Comprehension Worksheet
Learn about the origins of New Year’s celebrations with our informational text and comprehension questions worksheet.
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Knight Book Report Template
A book report template fit for a... knight!
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Guided Reading Groups Organizer Template
Identify your guided reading groups and move students to different levels with this binder-size template.
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Guided Reading Groups - Comprehension Question Prompts
Use these question prompts before, during, and after reading texts in your guided reading sessions.
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Inspirational Woman Profile: Malala Yousafzai – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension task to use when learning about Malala Yousafzai.
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The Enigma of AX29 - Narrative Plot Worksheet
Get your students analyzing and writing an invention story with this engaging and fully scaffolded writing project booklet.
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Sequence Persuasive Text Examples – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use this example persuasive text pack to teach your students about sequencing arguments in a logical order.
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Reading Comprehension Skills - Student Tracker
Track which comprehension skills your students are using with this individual student template.
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Guided Reading Groups - Retelling a Text Template
Use this template during a guided reading session for a scaffold to help your students retell a text.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Games
- 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