1,314 FREE Reading Comprehension Worksheets, Games and Tests
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FREE Reading Comprehension Worksheets

Reading is a very important part of learning a language. It's considered a receptive skill, otherwise known as a passive skill, which means that students don’t necessarily have to produce language - just receive it. But more often than not, students have difficulty reading because of vocabulary and/or the context involved. BusyTeacher.org offers 1,314 reading comprehension worksheets that are sure to help your students stay engaged in their reading, by providing interesting stories and effective exercises.

We as teachers don’t always have the time to make up our own stories, or go through books to pick out excerpts to present in our lessons. The reading worksheets on BusyTeacher.org offer a variety of different stories and texts in different categories and genres to help your students improve their reading ability and learn the language, all the while enjoying the stories they're reading. Depending on what you're aiming to teach, you can use these worksheets in a whole variety of different ways in the classroom. If a worksheet has a story that contains dialogue, you could assign roles to students and have them act out what the characters say. You can also use the stories on the worksheets to create comprehension questions. Some worksheets can even make for classroom discussion topics. After reading a passage, you can present a question to students, and ask them to give their opinions of where the story is going. These are just some of the many things you can do to make use of these worksheets in the classroom.

Whether you're teaching scanning, skimming, critical thinking, or reading for gist, BusyTeacher.org has the worksheet(s) you need for your lessons. There are worksheets on just about any topic you can think of - sports, business, history, and holidays to name a few. Another handy feature on BusyTeacher.org is that each worksheet has the level shown in the description, which makes it easy for you to find an appropriate worksheet for your students. The thumbnail can be opened to full page view, so you can check if the worksheet is right for your lesson. Some worksheets you'll find here are appropriate for several - or even for all levels, which means they're reusable for a future lessons with students at different levels.

No registration or subscription is necessary to download our worksheets. They’re all free to download, copy, and use in your lessons. Plus, all of them were created and uploaded by fellow ESL teachers from all around the globe, and have helped other ESL teachers in their lessons. In addition, if you have a worksheet you've created and would like to submit it to this site, you can do so by clicking the “Submit a worksheet” link at the bottom of this page. Join thousands of other ESL teachers using BusyTeacher.org, and bookmark us as your number-one stop for worksheets to use in your lessons daily! With 1,314 reading worksheets, planning your lessons has never been easier. Get started by checking out the most popular worksheets below. Try downloading one and using it in your lesson today!

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San Francisco Story

San Francisco Story

Reading Comprehension
San Francisco Story is level one (Beginner) home reading (simplified) story. The worksheet contains additional exercises on this story. There is a fill in exercise about the main characters of the ...
11 Views 10,552 BegElem
Who Lives Where?

Who Lives Where?

, Reading Comprehension
There are four different reading texts which include some basic grammar patterns such as can-cant, have got-has got, likes and dislikes. Matching activity and general questions should be done acco ...
21 Views 10,472 ElemPre-Int
Dreams and Nightmares

Dreams and Nightmares

This is a mixed skills worksheet that you can make use of according to your focus. There are reading, speaking, writing, and pronunciation activities. All the activities are designed according to ...
24 Views 47,408 ElemPre-IntInt
Part-time Jobs Reading Test

Part-time Jobs Reading Test

, Reading Comprehension
This is a worksheet for elementary students on part-time jobs. Students are asked to read the text, answer the questions and write a small composition. The worksheet is available in both colour a ...
26 Views 27,373 ElemPre-Int
Regrets and Criticism Worksheet: Should Have, Shouldn't Have

Regrets and Criticism Worksheet: Should Have, Shouldn't Have

, , Reading Comprehension,
This is a worksheet for practising should have/shouldn't have. The verbs are given and there are picture prompts as well to help the students complete the sentences. The key is included. Who says ...
31 Views 50,370 IntAdv
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Basic Critical Reading Skills Exercises

Basic Critical Reading Skills Exercises

, Reading Comprehension
The worksheet reviews some critical reading skills. The questions are on tone, bias, purpose and making inferences. These are four multiple choice questions that can also be used as a short quiz. ...
10 Views 31,316 Adv
Countries: Present Simple Affirmative, Negative and Question Forms

Countries: Present Simple Affirmative, Negative and Question Forms

, , Reading Comprehension
This is good for an intro to the Present Simple forms (+ve, -ve and ?). First, I have the flags of the countries printed individually and pasted on the walls of the classroom so students can get i ...
44 Views 62,320 ElemPre-Int
Gail Devers: A Runner's Dream

Gail Devers: A Runner's Dream

, Reading Comprehension
Do you know why Olympic track star Gail Devers had many obstacles to overcome before reaching her dream? Why did they call Gail a sprinter? Sprinting means to run very short races, that is what G ...
4 Views 6,210 Int
Amazing Adventures Reading Worksheet

Amazing Adventures Reading Worksheet

, , Reading Comprehension
This is a reading activity about interesting journeys. The texts are very interesting and at the beginning they have to talk about the pictures they have work in pairs and describe the pictures. ...
21 Views 23,673 ElemPre-Int
Reported Speech Activity

Reported Speech Activity

, Reading Comprehension,
Two worksheets for practising transforming sentences from direct into reported speech and vice versa. Distribute worksheet A to one half of the class (they should report the dialogue in their note ...
21 Views 19,141 Int
Theme and Mood

Theme and Mood

Reading Comprehension
This is a worksheet to help review theme and mood with eighth grade students. After teaching that Theme is the big picture, and mood is how a poem makes you feel because of the use of words that t ...
6 Views 12,053 Int
Spooky Story

Spooky Story

, Reading Comprehension,
Even though it's a three page long magazine article, it's one of my favourites to give my students for homework to read. It is very captivating and they all seem to like it. I want to make them sp ...
22 Views 19,382 Pre-IntIntAdv
Typhoid Mary: Reading

Typhoid Mary: Reading

, Reading Comprehension
Informative article: It gives facts about a real-life medical mistery. What is typhoid? What are typhoid fever symptoms? Where Is Typhoid Fever common? What are the causes? What is the treatment? ...
7 Views 8,935 Pre-Int
The Underground Railroad: Reading Activity

The Underground Railroad: Reading Activity

, Reading Comprehension
It's a wonderful reading about how black people escaped from slavery, beginning the journey from the USA to Canada. In the second slide you can find some questions with this you can work their kno ...
13 Views 11,266 Pre-Int
Revising Present Simple Through Reading

Revising Present Simple Through Reading

, Reading Comprehension
It is a reading worksheet consisting of three pages. The aim of the first two questions is to arouse students' interest to the topic and make them aware of what the worksheet could be about. Then, ...
10 Views 11,937 ElemPre-Int
Travelling Solo: Reading LP with Speaking Component

Travelling Solo: Reading LP with Speaking Component

, , Reading Comprehension
This is a lesson plan that I have used a lot. In fact, it's become my "go to" first lesson plan with adults in General English or Conversational classes. I've always received positive feedback fro ...
25 Views 28,142 IntAdv
Great Horoscope For 2012

Great Horoscope For 2012

, , Reading Comprehension
I made this at 2010, but I changed the year to 2012. You can use this to teach Future Simple as well as personality adjectives. You can also practice reading techniques. In the end your students ...
42 Views 43,451 Pre-Int
Belongings

Belongings

This worksheet is based on a photo article on http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/27belongings.html. Students look at the pictures some immigrants have taken with them to NYC and try to gu ...
30 Views 81,982 IntAdvExam
Past Simple Through Reading Worksheet II

Past Simple Through Reading Worksheet II

, Reading Comprehension
This is a worksheet for teaching the past simple tense. Suitable for elementary students who are asked to complete the text with the past simple of the verbs in brackets,answer the questions abou ...
22 Views 26,530 ElemPre-Int
Cereals - Not That Healthy

Cereals - Not That Healthy

The article presents the nutrition problem that many children and teenagers face, it helps students understand how to eat more healthily. It contains vocabulary connected with food, food preparati ...
14 Views 18,165 IntAdv
Reading

Reading "The Dragon's Pearl"

Reading Comprehension
PowerPoint presentation about the reading The Dragon's Pearl; a folk tale from China. Slides where you can teach different things for example the dragons through the history, vocabulary and the st ...
10 Views 11,922 Pre-Int
World Records: Superlative Adjectives Worksheet

World Records: Superlative Adjectives Worksheet

, , Reading Comprehension
Practice the superlative adjectives, the past of to be and questions with "who" with this reading worksheet about the Guinness Book of Records. It contains easy exercices of reading comprehension ...
31 Views 34,531 Elem
Newspaper Headlines Worksheet

Newspaper Headlines Worksheet

, Reading Comprehension,
Newspaper headlines, in authentic newspapers especially, have their own language. Journalists use a variety of techniques in order to attract and keep the reader’s attention. Some of them ar ...
59 Views 105,575 IntAdv
Sandwich Making

Sandwich Making

, , Reading Comprehension
This worksheet is good for teaching reading and writing skills. Teacher distributes the instructions of sandwich making to pupils and drills pupils on the reading. Then, teacher shows the demo on ...
14 Views 46,209 Elem
Myth of the Chinese Zodiac - The Great Race

Myth of the Chinese Zodiac - The Great Race

, Reading Comprehension
The story of how the order of the Chinese zodiac animals came to be. This story was taken from wikipedia and then edited to suit my lower classes' needs. Provided on the side are the vocabulary/ ...
18 Views 26,291 ElemPre-Int

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