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.
- Free Plan
Character or Not? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the difference between characters and non-characters with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Reading Comprehension Strategies Anchor Charts
Provide young readers with concrete examples of reading strategies with a set of 18 ready-made reading comprehension strategy anchor charts.
- Plus Plan
Fact or Opinion - Turtle Worksheet
A worksheet to use when teaching students how to distinguish between fact or opinion.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - What are Earthquakes?
A comprehension activity about 'What are Earthquakes?'
- Plus Plan
Year 3 Magazine – What’s Buzzing? (Issue 2)
A beautifully designed, 24-page reading magazine specifically designed for Year 3 students.
- Plus Plan
Summarising a Story Graphic Organisers
Use these graphic organisers to help students when summarising a story.
- Plus Plan
Printable Graphic Organiser Worksheets
A collection of 14 different blank graphic organisers to use in a variety of ways in all subject areas.
- Plus Plan
Decodable Text Worksheets - Single Graphemes (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
- Plus Plan
A Poppy for Remembering - Year 5 Reading Comprehension
Discover the history of the red poppy and its relation to Remembrance Day with printable reading comprehension worksheets for year 5.
- Plus Plan
Elements of Poetry PowerPoint - Year 5 and Year 6
A 25 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when introducing students to the elements of poetry.
- Plus Plan
Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion - Comprehension Task
A task to use when teaching your students reading comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Earth Watch – Drowning in Plastic Reading Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about plastic pollution in our oceans.
- Plus Plan
Sequencing Activity - Homework is Unnecessary (Persuasive Text)
A sequencing task using a persuasive text.
- Free Plan
Extreme Environments: Lands of Ice and Sand – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an information report from the Year 4 magazine (Issue 3).
- Plus Plan
Main Idea and Details in Nonfiction - Interactive Activity
Help your students easily find the main idea and support details in a nonfiction text with this interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Fact or Opinion - Sentence Sort Worksheet
A worksheet to use when teaching students how to distinguish between fact or opinion.
- Plus Plan
Giant Squid Reading Comprehension Worksheets - Year 5
Read and learn about the features and adaptations of the giant squid with reading comprehension worksheets for years 5 and 6.
- Plus Plan
Identifying Descriptive and Figurative Language Worksheets
Help your students identify descriptive and figurative language in narrative texts with this set of colour-coding worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Story Retelling Strips
Explore a story with your students with this story-retelling cut-and-paste worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Polar Bear Adaptations Reading Comprehension Pack
Discover polar bear structural adaptations with a set of printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 3.
- Free Plan
Monster Magic - Reading Comprehension Activity
Read and comprehend a set of instructions to create a magical monster!
- Plus Plan
Exploring and Building Narrative Characters PowerPoint
A 14 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching younger students about how to build a character for a narrative text.
- Plus Plan
Earth Watch: Protecting Native Plants and Animals – Comprehension Worksheet
Build comprehension skills and learn about human impact on ecosystems with a reading passage and worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Types of Figurative Language - Worksheet
Practise identifying and creating examples of figurative language with this printable worksheet.
- Plus Plan
120 Comprehension Strategy Question Cards
A set of 120 open-ended question cards to help students apply comprehension strategies when reading.
- Plus Plan
Summarising Nonfiction Task Cards
Guide students along their summarising journey with this set of Non-Fiction texts on task cards for students to summarise.
- Plus Plan
Giraffe Adaptations - Reading Comprehension Year 3
Read and learn about adaptations of the giraffe with a set of printable Year 3 comprehension activities.
- 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.
- Plus Plan
The Water Cycle – Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Enhance your students’ comprehension and science vocabulary skills with this water cycle worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Let's Get Ready to Rock! – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for the information report from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
- Plus Plan
The Story of Gulaga - Comprehension and Activity Worksheet
A comprehension and linked activity based on an Aboriginal Dreaming Story.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension Task Cards - Recognising Cause And Effect
A set of comprehension task cards to help students recognise cause and effect when reading.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Teaching Presentations
- Reading Comprehension Games
- 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