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.
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Inference Detectives Worksheet Pack
Guide your students to use personal experiences and text evidence to make inferences with this set of reading worksheets.
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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.
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Components of Poetry PowerPoint
An editable PowerPoint to use when teaching the essential components of poetry.
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Analysing Persuasive Devices Worksheets
Get students analysing persuasive techniques and their effects on audiences with this set of three texts with accompanying questions.
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Free Desert Animal Adaptations Worksheets - Comprehension
Discover desert animal adaptations with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack for Grade 4.
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Inference Comics - Worksheet
Use this set of comic strips when teaching your students how to infer information from everyday situations.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion
A set of comprehension task cards to help students distinguish between fact and opinion when reading.
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Hansel and Gretel – Comprehension Worksheet
Develop your students' reading comprehension skills with a well-known fairy tale.
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Sequencing Activity - Dogs Make the Best Pets (Persuasive Text)
A sequencing task using a persuasive text.
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Amazing Ants! – Comprehension Worksheet Year 1-2
Review reading skills with comprehension worksheet for an article about ants from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 3).
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Inference Pictures – Digital Question Pack
Download this set of captivating pictures and thought-provoking questions designed to challenge students’ inference-making abilities.
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Story Beginning, Middle and End - Graphic Organiser
Help your students write and draw about the beginning, middle and end of stories with this set of differentiated graphic organisers.
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Recess Rules: True Friends – Worksheet
Learn about being a good friend while also brushing up on those reading comprehension skills with this comic strip activity.
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Mars vs. Earth - Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Learn about the planets with differentiated compare and contrast passages, activities and writing opportunities.
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Aiming For Inference Posters
Six mini posters showing different scenarios that can be used when encouraging students to use inference.
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Poetry Analysis Template
A 1 page template for students to use when analysing a poem.
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Literary Devices Poster Pack
Explore the various literary devices used by authors with the set of colourful classroom posters.
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Polar Bear Adaptations Reading Comprehension Pack
Discover polar bear structural adaptations with a set of printable reading comprehension worksheets for Year 3.
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Making Inferences – Birthday Activity
Teach your students how to make inferences with this birthday invitation activity.
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The Force of Gravity Comprehension Worksheets
Download this gravity worksheet to teach your Year 4 students about the force of gravity and its impact on our daily lives.
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Renewable vs Non-Renewable Energy Sources – Worksheet
Discover the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources with a comprehension passage and worksheet.
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Figurative Language PowerPoint
Explore figurative language with your students using this comprehensive teaching presentation.
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Sequencing Activity - Stop Polluting The Ocean (Persuasive Text)
A sequencing task using a persuasive text.
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Procedural Writing Sequencing Worksheet – How to Wash Your Dog
Use this procedural writing worksheet to teach your students about the importance of sequence in procedure texts.
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Naked Mole Rat - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Read and learn facts about the naked mole rat with a printable reading comprehension worksheet pack for year 4 and 5.
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Wanted Poster Template
Use this free wanted poster template to do an in-depth character study on any character you can think of!
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Phases of the Moon – Comprehension Worksheet
Analyse different moon phases and how their visual appearances change over time with this reading comprehension worksheet.
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Types of Figurative Language - Worksheet
Practise identifying and creating examples of figurative language with this printable worksheet.
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The Poet's Lament - Comprehension
A comprehension activity using a poem.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Recognising Cause And Effect
A set of comprehension task cards to help students recognise cause and effect when reading.
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Exploring Poetry Worksheet - Onomatopoeia
A worksheet to help students understand onomatopoeia in poetry.
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Comprehension - What are Earthquakes?
A comprehension activity about 'What are Earthquakes?'