Reading Passages and Comprehension Activities for the WHOLE Year

Yep, you read that right. This pack is combination of reading passages and comprehension activities for the whole year! I’ve had several requests to bundle all of the reading passages from various seasonal packs. I did the same for writing prompts a few months ago. This baby has been sitting in my “to do” file for a while now! I just could not get my act together on this one! It seems like it should’ve been quick and simple. Just hunt through all your old packs and take out the reading passages. Done. Well, not so much. I tweaked. I added. I differentiated. I fixed things. Finally, it’s done! This resource is common core aligned for first grade, with the standards listed on each reading passage.

I’ve been using these reading passages for a while now.

I started making these about two years ago. I wanted to give my students more practice with reading. I love reading little books with my students too, but sometimes I only have time for a shorter story. I wanted to give my students more opportunities to practice reading to improve fluency AND comprehension. I was teaching all these comprehension skills then searching for texts that would allow them to practice those skills. Let me be clear: there is no replacing real books! I would never take that out of my curriculum. BUT, I do think there is a place for good reading passages that focus in on a particular comprehension skill. Each reading passage has comprehension question that lend themselves to close reading. I always have my students go back and show me where they found the answer.

These can be used with small group or whole class, depending on the ability levels in your class.

Here how I use these:

1. Introduce the story (title, make predictions, fiction or non, etc)

2. Vocabulary or sight words (We search for sight words if it’s a reading passage for early in the year. For more challenging tests, I introduce special vocabulary words that are key to the story or new to students or challenging)

3. Review our reading strategies

4. Students “whisper read” or read in their head while I guide as needed, listen to a few students (and take some notes about their reading cues and strategies they are using). If they finish before their classmates, they just read it again for fluency.

5. We come back and talk about the story. Usually I focus in on the comprehension skill. We go over the comprehension questions together, and they look for the answers in the text. They love using highlighters, so I often let them highlight answers in the text. Every question lends itself to a teachable moment.

(Sometimes these can spread out to be a two day reading group lesson.)

Here are some pictures from previous years:

Most of these reading passages have two or more reading levels. That way you can use the same story with two or more reading groups of varying ability levels. Here is a preview (remember, they will look familiar because you’ve seen these before! They are from my seasonal and holiday packs).