Reading Resources
Comprehension
Additional Comprehension Resources
These resources (found in the ESL library) are also useful for Comprehension instruction:
- ESL Literacy Readers offers 40 theme-based stories, a learner page, and a teacher’s guide with ideas for reading activities and extensions
Breaking News English
This website is a source of current event articles written at Levels 0-6. The printable PDFs and online quizzes and activities may be useful for Beginning and Intermediate level students.
Center for Adult Literacy Text Library
An electronic library of over 1600 texts at grade levels 3.0-7.9. Users (teachers or learners) select from “easier, medium, or harder” stories and topics such as Health, Food, Babies, Children, Teenagers, Families, Advice, Non-Fiction, Fiction, Jobs & Work, Money, History, and Science.
Change Agent
This subscription-based (online and/or print) social justice newspaper is published twice a year (March and September). The Change Agent includes student-written articles (leveled according to readability), discussion topics, and lesson plans. It is useful for Intermediate, Advanced, and Adult Secondary level students.
Comprehension – Challenges & Possible Solutions
Common comprehension strategy instructional challenges and solutions developed by Minnesota STARs and Trainers.
Comprehension Instruction for STAR/EBRI Volunteers
This handout describes what STAR/EBRI volunteers need to know about evidence-based and explicit comprehension instruction. It focuses on teaching five strategies: 1) asking and answering questions, 2) finding topics, 3) identifying main idea sentences, 4) identifying key details or important steps, and 5) writing summaries.
MN STAR/EBRI Teacher-Recommended Comprehension Resources
for the four components of reading is recommended by Minnesota STAR (STudent Achievement in Reading) and EBRI (Evidence-Based Reading Instruction) teachers. Resources are organized by the four reading components – alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension – and free and pay-for resources are included.
Newsela – Comprehension
Teachers and students can sign up for FREE and unlimited access to relevant news articles and quizzes, at 5 different lexile scores, all aligned with CCRS reading anchors. This varied and vertical text selection allows an entire class to read, discuss, and comprehend the same non-fiction content!
Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers – Comprehension
This website provides 175 CNA (certified nursing assistant) and general healthcare passages and audios for adult readers at grade levels 5.5 to 8.5 (Intermediate level). All are CCRS aligned and include pre-reading questions, definitions of healthcare or high-frequency vocabulary, and text-dependent questions.
- CCRS
- Comprehension
- Curriculum Design
- ESL
- Fluency
- Formative Assessment
- Text-Dependent Questions
- Vocabulary
ReadWorks.org
ReadWorks provides a large, high-quality library of curated nonfiction and literary articles, along with reading comprehension and vocabulary lessons, formative assessments, and teacher guidance. Through this website teachers can access curriculum, lesson plans, and free training.
Stellar Comprehension Ideas
These “stellar” ideas for comprehension instruction were collected from participating MN STAR administrators and teachers during 2009-2012.
Teaching and Assessing Understanding of Text Structures Across Grades
This article summarizes the research on teaching text structures and discusses implications for instruction across grade levels.
Text Structures
Each printable text structure activity provides six short passages and a worksheet for identifying each passage’s text structure (chronological, compare and contrast, cause and effect, sequence, problem and solution) and completing a related graphic organizer.
The Times in Plain English
This website contains free "Plain English Version" articles about current world and national news or events. All of the articles are edited by Arthur Schiff and grade-leveled according to Flesch-Kincaid. In addition to articles, the website offers Tips for Teachers, which provides text-dependent questions.