Reading comprehension resources for schools
Primary aged children. Provides a range of short, cross-curricular, stand-alone, levelled texts and questions. Uses Reading VIPERS; an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. Includes; Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation and Retrieval. Comprehension questions are categorised using ‘VIPERS’. Requires school code/purchasing to access ‘Reading Vipers’ section of website.
Rising Stars - Cracking Comprehension
Free Year 4 sample from ‘Rising stars’ resource (requires purchasing) ‘Cracking Comprehension’. Includes Teacher planning and resources. Extract from popular fiction book with activities building on a range of skills such as; listening comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and text-level strategies (metacognitive, inferencing). Includes practise text/questions and assessment notes.
Rising Stars - Cracking Comprehension
Free Year 6 sample from ‘Rising stars’ resource (requires purchasing) ‘Cracking Comprehension’. Includes Teacher planning and resources. Extract from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Activities building on a range of skills such as; listening comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and text-level strategies (metacognitive, inferencing). Includes practise text/questions and assessment notes.
https://reading.ecb.org/teacher/resources.html *website retiring Dec 2023
Includes lesson plans, teacher guides, downloads and videos for many different reading comprehension strategies (summarising, visualising, questioning, inferring, evaluating, making connections, synthesising and prior knowledge). This is an American website however the resources could easily be adapted for use in UK Primary school classrooms.
For children aged 7 years+. Sign-up for a free trial (not for a limited period and gives full functionality for Roald Dahl’s George's Marvellous Medicine and The Witches). Includes a series of extracts and is designed to bring together key ingredients to improve reading such as; the explicit exploration of comprehension strategies, elements of meta-cognition, collaborative discussion and reading for pleasure.
Requires purchasing. Reciprocal reading series for peer-to-peer learning (independent of the teacher). Based on small-group reading sessions where children can encourage each other. Uses Clarification, summarisation, prediction and question generation comprehension strategies alongside visualising, inferencing and making connections. Builds on speaking and listening skills whilst working through comprehension strategies.
Scholastic - Reciprocal reading and the Connectors scheme
Video describing Connectors reciprocal reading series (please see previous link for more information)
Scientific Advisory Committee, Knowledge Matters Campaign
Website promoting excellent instructional practices in schools, raising awareness of the importance of content knowledge to reading comprehension and critical thinking.