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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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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Making Inferences With Pictures Worksheet
Guide your students to use pictures to make inferences with this reading worksheet.
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5 Finger Retell Graphic Organizers
Help students sort out their thoughts during retelling with this set of three 5 finger retelling graphic organizers.
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5 Finger Retelling Drawing Flipbook
Help your students understand the different aspects of a retell with this drawing to retell flipbook.
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Story Retell Flipbook
Explore retelling a story with your students with this I Can Retell a Story flipbook template.
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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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Jack and the Beanstalk Retelling Activity Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for Jack and the Beanstalk.
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Story Elements Cut and Paste Worksheets – Little Red Riding Hood
Explore story characters, settings and main events with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets based on a well-known fairy tale.
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Story Settings - Flipbook
Teach your students about story settings with this hands-on flipbook.
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Guided Reading Groups - Progress Tracker
Track student progress during guided reading sessions with this template.
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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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Activating Prior Knowledge - Comprehension Strategy Poster
A poster explaining how to activate prior knowledge before reading.
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Sporting Picture Stories - Sequencing Activity
A set of sequencing cards for students to use as an independent writing activity.
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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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Guided Reading Groups - Comprehension Strategy Tracker
Track which comprehension strategies your students are using during guided reading sessions with this template.
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Retelling Stories Teaching Slides
Teach your students all about the fundamentals of retelling a story with this set of teaching slides.
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5 Finger Retelling Flipbook
Explore the 5 finger retell strategy with this guided flipbook.
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Story Elements Cut and Paste Worksheets - The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Explore story characters, settings and main events with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets based on a well-known fable.
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Who Is the Main Character? Interactive Game
Practice identifying the main characters in nursery rhymes with this interactive digital activity.
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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 or Not? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the difference between characters and non-characters with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Main Idea and Details Anchor Chart
Print a main idea anchor chart for primary grades to build skills in identifying main idea and details in nonfiction texts.
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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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Story Settings - Brochure Template
Encourage your students to identify story settings in the books they read with this brochure template.
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Story Setting or Not? - Sorting Activity
Explore the difference between story settings and non-settings with this hands-on sorting activity.
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Story Beginning, Middle, and End - Graphic Organizer
Help your students write and draw about the beginning, middle and end of stories with this set of differentiated graphic organizers.
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Thurgood Marshall Activity Pack
Learn about the life and contributions of Thurgood Marshall with a comprehensive pack of informational worksheets.
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Katherine Johnson Activity Pack
Learn about the life and contributions of Katherine Johnson with a comprehensive pack of informational worksheets.
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Humpty Dumpty Worksheets - Character, Setting, and Story Elements
Identify characters, setting, and parts of a story with kindergarten reading worksheets featuring the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
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Fairy Tales Word Wall Vocabulary
Build vocabulary and inspire fairy tale writing with sixty-eight fairy tale-themed vocabulary cards.
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Character Anchor Charts - Traits, Feelings, and Appearances
A set of 3 posters depicting words and phrases that can be used to describe a character traits, feelings and appearance.
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Community Helpers: Firefighter – Comprehension Worksheet
Kick off Fire Prevention Week this October with a decodable firefighter reading passage and comprehension worksheet.
- 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