Reading Passages Teaching Resources
Explore reading passages ready to be used in your primary classroom to assess your students' comprehension skills and build their confidence as readers!
Created by teachers for teachers, each reading passage in this extensive collection has been designed to enhance student comprehension skills and build understanding. This collection of Australian English curriculum-aligned comprehension passages was created by the teachers on the Teach Starter team, and each has undergone a review by an expert on our team to ensure it’s ready for your classroom.
Not sure where to begin? Here’s a quick primer from our teacher team to help you get the most out of this teacher tool!
What Are Reading Passages?
Reading passages are a set of written texts that are typically used for reading comprehension exercises and assessments. They can come in various forms, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama. They are used to provide a text for students to read and analyse and are often accompanied by questions or tasks to assess comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and other language skills.
How to Use Reading Passages in the Classroom
This collection of short reading passages can be used for a variety of needs, including:
- Practising reading fluency
- Provide students with practise in reading comprehension and critical thinking skills
- Measuring students’ reading level
- Exposing students to different genres, authors and writing styles
Best of all? Teach Starter's reading passages have been developed so they can be used for individual or group activities.
- Plus Plan
Year 5 Magazine - "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 1) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with issue 1 of Teach Starter's Year 5 magazine.
- Plus Plan
10 Fascinating Facts Worksheet – The Global Seed Vault
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about the global seed vault.
- Free Plan
Days of the Week – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Foundation magazine (Issue 3).
- Plus Plan
Human Histories: Amazing Artists – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article about some amazing artists.
- Free Plan
The Secret Society of Vegetable Venerators – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 5 magazine (Issue 2).
- Plus Plan
Comic – Peer Politics: In Sync – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a comic about encouraging people and their passions regardless of their gender.
- Free Plan
Fact and Opinion Task Cards
A set of 12 task cards to practise identifying and writing facts and opinions.
- Plus Plan
The Mysterious Medallion's Paradox - Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 6 magazine (Issue 2).
- Plus Plan
10 Fascinating Facts About Mauna Kea – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an article about ten facts about Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
- Plus Plan
The Approach to Titan – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a narrative from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
- Plus Plan
Year 1 Magazine – "What's Buzzing?" (Issue 3) Task Cards
A set of five literacy rotation task cards to be used in conjunction with Issue 3 of Teach Starter’s Year 1 magazine.
- Plus Plan
Colossal Cinemas: Movie Merch Mayhem – Project
A project in which students can design a merchandise line and create a movie trailer for a chosen movie to screen at Colossal Cinemas.
- Plus Plan
Bike Riding is Awesome! - Comprehension Worksheet
A worksheet about bike riding safety.
- Plus Plan
Human Histories: Amazing Achievements - Read and Respond Worksheet
A comprehension activity related to a biographical text.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - King Tutankhamun
A comprehension activity about King Tutankhamun.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Game, Set, Match!
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Perfect Parents
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Best In Show
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Creepy Cat Club
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Hansel, Gretel and Nancy
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Jesting Archaeologist
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - 45th Annual Acting Awards
A fun script and set of questions to help students develop reading and comprehension strategies.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Why Bears Have Stumpy Tails
A comprehension activity using a narrative text for lower grades.
- Plus Plan
MP3 Players and Your Hearing Cloze Worksheet
A cloze worksheet about MP3 players and hearing.
- Plus Plan
Comprehension - Public Speaking Day
A comprehension activity using a narrative about public speaking.
- Plus Plan
Word of the Week PowerPoint - Year 5
A 40 slide PowerPoint Template for introducing new vocabulary to year 5 students.
- Plus Plan
Rio de Janeiro - Comprehension Task
A comprehension task that encourages students to apply a range of comprehension skills when finding out interesting fun facts about Rio.
- Plus Plan
The Moon Landing - Historical Recount Structure Sorting Task
A sorting task to help students learn about the structure of a historical recount.
- Plus Plan
Halloween Printables - Read and Draw Worksheet
Practise comprehension skills with an exciting Halloween reading comprehension worksheet for year 4.
- Plus Plan
All About Bats Mini Book
Go batty for informational text with a printable bat book for early readers.
- Plus Plan
Finding the Central Idea Worksheet
Read a short article, answer 10 comprehension questions, and use the gathered knowledge to write a central idea sentence about the text.
- Plus Plan
National Tree Day – Why Plant a Tree? Infographic Analysis Activity
Teach about the importance of trees on National Tree Day with an infographic poster and cloze note-taking worksheet.