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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Fiction or Nonfiction? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this fiction and nonfiction worksheet when teaching your students about the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Distinguishing Between Fiction and Nonfiction
A set of comprehension task cards to help students distinguish between fiction and nonfiction when reading.
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Inference Car Classifieds - Worksheet
A series of car classifieds worksheets to use when teaching your students how to to make inferences when reading.
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Kangaroo Adaptations – Reading Comprehension PDF Worksheets
Discover amazing kangaroo adaptations with a printable Reading comprehension worksheet pack.
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Sloth Adaptations – Comprehension Skills Worksheet
Read and comprehend nonfiction text about the adaptations of a sloth with a printable pack of reading skills worksheets.
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Comprehension Task Cards Summarizing
Practice summarizing text with this set of event-specific task cards.
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Dogs Make The Best Pets - Reading Comprehension PDF
Assess 3rd grade reading comprehension skills with a printable Reading Comprehension Test using an opinion text.
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Summarizing Teaching Slides
Teach students all about summarizing with 15 teaching slides of summarizing goodness.
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Summarizing a Story Graphic Organizers
Help students remember the fundamentals of summarizing a story with this set of fun graphic organizers.
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Giraffe Adaptations Reading Comprehension - 3rd Grade
Read and learn about giraffe adaptations with a set of 3rd grade reading comprehension worksheets.
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Amazing Ants! – Comprehension Worksheet for 2nd Grade
Review reading skills and learn about Amazing Ants! with a printable 2nd grade nonfiction reading comprehension worksheet.
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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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Retelling a Story Workbook
Help your students retain the elements of a retell with this printable retelling stories student workbook.
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Retelling Stories Paper Chains Template
Get crafty with this fun retelling stories activity where students use paper chains to create a chain for a story they have read in class.
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The U.S. Constitution Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Introduce your students to the U.S. Constitution with an informational reading passage and reading comprehension test.
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Grade 6 Magazine - What's Buzzing? (Issue 1)
A beautifully designed, 26-page reading magazine specifically designed for Grade 6 students.
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Grade 4 Magazine - What's Buzzing? (Issue 1)
A beautifully designed, 24-page reading magazine written specifically for Grade 4 students.
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Summarizing Nonfiction Graphic Organizer Pack
Help students summarize nonfiction texts with this set of graphic organizers.
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Story Elements Graphic Organizers – Landscape
Encourage your students to write and draw about various story elements with this set of differentiated graphic organizers.
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Types of Characters - Poster
Remind students about the types of characters that can be found in stories with this colorful classroom poster.
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Character Appearance, Traits and Feelings - Worksheet
Explore and describe a character's personality, feelings and appearance with this differentiated worksheet to be used with any text.
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Character or Not? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the difference between characters and non-characters with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Story Settings - Graphic Organizers
Encourage your students to write and draw about story settings with this set of differentiated graphic organizers.
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Beginning, Middle and End Mini-Book - The Three Bears
Teach your students about the beginning, middle and end of a story with this mini-book retell of The Three Bears.
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Renewable vs. Nonrenewable Energy Sources Worksheets
Discover the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy sources with a comprehension passage and worksheet.
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Elements of Poetry - Instructional Slide Deck
Investigate poetic elements with an interactive Elements of Poetry teaching slide deck.
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Read Across America - Reading Response Templates
Read and review the best books in the U.S.A. during Read Across America with printable book review templates.
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Humpty Dumpty Off the Wall - Reading Comprehension
Assess first-grade reading comprehension skills with a Humpty Dumpty Reading passage and 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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Character Traits: Interactive Activity
Analyze text and identify character traits of characters with a Google Slides Interactive activity.
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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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The Pony Express - Comprehension Passage Worksheet
Teach your students how to write a constructed response paragraph and integrate grade level Social studies concepts with a free Pony Express worksheet and ten-question comprehension assessment.
- Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Reading Comprehension Templates
- Reading Comprehension Posters
- Reading Comprehension Games
- 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
- Reading Comprehension for 7th Grade