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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Arctic Fox Adaptations - Free Comprehension Worksheet
Read and learn about Arctic fox adaptations with a set of printable Reading Comprehension Worksheets for 2nd and 3rd grade.
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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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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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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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Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences – Comprehension Task Cards
Use this set of comprehension task cards with your students to help them draw conclusions and make inferences when reading.
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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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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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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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Concepts About Print Assessment Checklists
Use these concepts of print assessment checklists to check all aspects of print are understood.
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Poetry Analysis Worksheet Pack
Analyze and comprehend a variety of poetry types with these printable Poetry analysis worksheets.
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Poetry and Figurative Language Workbook - Poems for Middle School
Print a pack of poems with figurative language worksheets to practice poetry analysis.
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Types of Point of View in Literature Poster
Teach the types of point of view in literature with this classroom poster that explains first person, third person limited, and third person omniscient narration.
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Five Little Firefighters Poem Retell Activity
Read and retell the ‘Five Little Firefighters’ poem with a printable chart and stick puppet characters.
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Story Map Graphic Organizer Pack
Download and use a printable Story Map Graphic Organizer to help your students make sense of story elements related to their reading.
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Monitoring Comprehension Strategies Text Annotations Poster
Help students monitor their comprehension with this Monitoring Comprehension Reading Strategy using text annotations.
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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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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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Human Histories: World Explorers – Comprehension Worksheet
A free comprehension worksheet paired with an informational text about world explorers.
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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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What's the Connection? Worksheet
Use this reading skills worksheet to help your students learn about the types of text connections: text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world.
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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 elementary students.
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Narrative Tension – Text Analysis Worksheets
Teach narrative tension with this set of three worksheets designed to help students explore how authors build suspense and keep readers hooked.
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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.
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Sorting Text Features Cut and Paste
Build confidence and comprehension with this ready-to-use Text Features Cut and Paste Worksheet!
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Interesting Idioms Worksheets
Teach figurative language with these idioms worksheets that will introduce your students to many of the most commonly used idioms.
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Self Monitoring Reading Strategy Poster
Help students reflect on their reading with this Self Monitoring Reading Strategy Poster.
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Self-Monitoring Reading Activities
Explore how to monitor reading while reading with this set of Self-Monitoring Reading Activities task cards.
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Making Predictions from Sentences Worksheets
Practice making predictions with sentences using this set of making predictions worksheets.
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Christmas Around the World - 4th Grade Reading Comprehension
Discover how Christmas is celebrated in the northern and southern hemispheres with printable reading comprehension sheets for 4th grade.
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Uses of Magnets Comprehension Worksheet
Download this magnets worksheet to teach your 2nd grade students about the uses of magnets in our everyday 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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Earth Watch: Drowning in Plastic - Comprehension Worksheet
Practice reading comprehension skills and learn about microplastic pollution in our oceans with a reading comprehension activity.
- 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