10 Fantastic reading comprehension activities for all levels

09.10.2025

9 minutes

Reading
Activities

Reading comprehension is one of the most important language skills for any learner. While reading might not be every student’s favorite activity, it remains crucial.

There are numerous benefits to reading and completing comprehension tasks:

It enhances spelling. Unlike listening, reading exposes students to the written word on a phonemic level.
It broadens students' understanding of how language works by providing contextualized vocabulary and collocations.
Reading introduces learners to grammar, functional language, and discourse structures in authentic use.

However, reading alone isn’t enough. Teachers must help students decode texts and assess their comprehension to ensure that the meaning is understood correctly. That’s why choosing appropriate, level-tailored activities is essential. Before assigning reading tasks, consider:

How will this task help my learners?
Which skills and subskills are we focusing on?
How can it be challenging yet motivating?

This article presents practical, classroom-tested activities for various CEFR levels, accompanied by key theory and relevant examples.

What’s reading comprehension in EFL?

Reading comprehension is the ability to read a text, process it, and understand its meaning. It involves two core skills: decoding (recognizing written symbols) and language comprehension (understanding meaning).

According to Jeremy Harmer, learners activate the following when reading:

Decoding: recognizing words and sounds.
Vocabulary & Grammar: understanding structures and meanings.
Inference & Prediction: reading between the lines and anticipating content.
Schema Activation: using prior knowledge and experience to make sense of the text.

These components develop over time and present challenges at different stages:

A1–A2: limited vocabulary slows understanding; decoding is still developing.
B1–B2: students may struggle with inference and recognizing text cohesion.
C1+: learners may find tone, nuance, and implicit meaning difficult.

In this part, I should have written about some approaches and the basics of reading comprehension. But this article is not theoretical.

If you need to refresh or learn about it, you should consider viewing and taking the course on reading at the Grade University platform. Created by professionals for teachers who want to become more skilled and equipped.

Check the course about reading and find out more, because we need to move on with a more practical side (and honestly, this is what you came for, don’t you?)

A1-A2 level activities

As I mentioned before, A-level students are only at the very beginning of their learning path. The tasks provided to them should be:

Concise
Easy to read
Follow the order of the text
Supported with visual aids or other help.

So, here are a bunch of tasks that are student-approved and that they truly enjoyed completing.

Picture-based comprehension

Type of tasks: lead-in and reading for gist. Procedure:

Activate schemata and warm your students up with a lead-in activity first.
Show your students photos or pictures related to the text. Ask your students to say what they can see in the pictures.
Then, show them a short part of the text or the headline. Ask them about how the pictures and this information are related. While your students are sharing their ideas, you should elicit and write down their ideas.
After that, give your students a text to read. When they finish, ask them to (you can do what suits the best to your text best): Match the text with the correct picture; Identify the picture that doesn’t belong; Put the pictures in the correct order.
Note that the images should be as close to the text content as possible, so you don’t confuse your students. I often use pictures for reading to encourage my students and support them, especially when I can anticipate their struggles with reading.

Here are some modifications for more detailed reading that my students enjoyed and found interesting and motivating:

Pictures as the answer options

Instead of classical multiple-choice questions, use a more visual version. However, it can take some time for preparation.

Picture matching

If the reading piece contains some names and specific information, you can put the names and this information in pictures so students can match. It’s a great activity to do in pairs.

Read the text and find the mistake in the illustration

It’s a fun and creative task that focuses on details. Students must read the text thoroughly to find where the picture is inaccurate.

I suggest using 2 or 3 pictures, which can be given to different students. Firstly, they discuss it separately, and then, as a next step, they share their findings with other students.

What I love about this is that everyone should participate. And, of course, peer support is also an important part of the teaching as it can boost students’ confidence.

Depending on the text and your students’ preferences (if any), you can use comic-style images (like anime or similar), emojis, icons, or digital paintings. There is so much to explore!

Find someone who….(jigsaw reading task variation)

This task will be a great opportunity for all students to participate in a classroom discussion and peer teaching. This task is an adapted and adjusted version of a popular speaking activity.

Present the list of statements with the header “FIND SOMEONE WHO…?” Elicit that students are going to look for information related to these statements in the texts.
Before that, they should do some reading and match statements with the texts they will get. You can break the bigger text into smaller parts. If the group is large, you can assign the matching activity to a group to complete together.
After that, students will need to find the rest of the information that is missing in their parts of the texts. They’ll need to ask the new partners the questions about the information they don’t have and answer the questions as well. The objective is to complete the whole list of statements given.
After they are finished, provide them with feedback and ask students to provide more information.

These tasks can be adapted to things, places, and any kind of information you need your students to comprehend. But I must admit that it’s a little bit time-consuming, but you’ll get to cooperate with our students with each other and not load them with lots of information at once.

Complete the summary/factfile

Another activity suitable for elementary students is completing information gaps. It focuses on some specific information, so students will have to read more intensively. Again, be mindful of the content and topic when you complete the activity.

Here, I’d like to suggest a few ways how students can complete the gaps:

Fact file completion: your students will need to complete the gaps with ONE word of factual information from the text. For instance, it can be names of countries, numbers, names, etc.
Name completion: if the text contains information about a few people, they can complete information about each person using their names. Use close to the text or slightly paraphrased statements.
Picture-clue completion. Students will get the summary or factfile with pictures instead of words. They should read the text and replace the images with the correct words.

The procedure is similar to all variations:

After you’re done with gist reading and familiarization with the text, present the gapped summary or a fact file. Ask the students if anything is missing. Instruct them to complete the gaps.
After your students have gotten the idea, tell them to use text to find the needed information.
Get them to check answers in pairs and find evidence in the text (the parts of the text where they found the information)
As a follow-up activity, you can ask them to express their opinion about the information or share some interesting information they know. Help your learners with questions that might help them share.
Also, it’s a good idea to use such a task as a transition to language clarification.

B1/B2 levels

When your students reach the B level, they become more confident and independent readers. At this stage, their task is not just to decode words and structures but to understand deeper layers of meaning — such as the author’s tone, attitude, or the implied ideas behind the text.

They are also ready to work with longer, more complex reading passages and to use evidence to support their understanding.

Instead of focusing on vocabulary or grammar alone, the teacher’s role shifts to helping students interpret, evaluate, and discuss what they read.

They can now summarise key ideas, express opinions, and predict what might happen next. Below are several task types that encourage this more advanced level of engagement.

Jigsaw Reading with a Twist

This familiar task can be easily adapted for B-level learners who are ready for more interaction and creativity. The teacher divides the text into several parts and distributes them among small groups.

Each group reads its section, summarises its main idea, and presents it to the class. The presentation can take different forms — from a brief report to a passionate or humorous mini-speech.

While one group presents, others listen carefully and take notes. After all presentations, students answer comprehension questions based on the information they’ve just heard.

Once everyone has shared, the full text is revealed, and the class compares how accurately each group conveyed the information.

This task not only strengthens comprehension but also builds confidence and public speaking skills. If some students are shy or uncertain about pronunciation, the teacher can provide supporting phrases or allow them to work in pairs before speaking.

Don’t Start from the Beginning

To make reading more intriguing, give students the middle or the end of a text instead of the beginning. Ask them to guess what might have happened before or after this part of the story. Their predictions spark curiosity and get them thinking creatively.

After sharing ideas, hand out the remaining, jumbled parts of the text. Each student or group retells their fragment to others, and together they reconstruct the full story. Once the story is complete, comprehension questions can help to check understanding.

As a follow-up, students can invent an alternative ending or beginning — an engaging way to practise narrative thinking and creative language use.

Simplify or Upgrade the Text

This activity is particularly effective for stronger or mixed-level groups. After a short lead-in, show the title or introduction of the text and ask students to predict what it might be about. Then, as they read, they identify the main ideas they think are worth sharing.

Divide the class into two groups: the first retells the text in a simplified but accurate form, while the second retells it in a more detailed and expressive way.

Once both versions are shared, give students a True/False/No Information quiz based on what was said to test how precisely they transmitted the meaning.

Finally, have them compare results and discuss which version was clearer or more useful. This activity combines elements of jigsaw reading and comprehension checking, but also trains students to adapt their language depending on purpose and audience.

Headlines and Missing Information

Another effective way to develop higher-level reading skills is through headlines. Asking students to create or match headlines to different parts of a text helps them recognise structure, cohesion, and logical sequencing.

If students are new to this activity, start with simple matching tasks where they link given headlines to paragraphs. Later, you can make it more challenging.

For example, show only the headlines and ask students to predict what the corresponding text might be about. Alternatively, present only the first sentences or keywords of each section and ask them to invent suitable titles.

After the full text is revealed, students match their headlines again and justify their choices with evidence from the text. To make things more interesting, you can intentionally include misleading or opposite headlines — this will push students to think more critically.

As a final creative touch, ask them to come up with one- or two-word alternative headlines that summarise each paragraph. They can exchange ideas in pairs, post them on sticky notes, or write them on a shared online board. Then, let the class vote for the most accurate or imaginative titles.

This type of task develops both reading and analytical skills while showing students how meaning can shift depending on word choice.

C1+ Level Activities

Advanced students can easily do the usual activities to check and assess comprehension. The texts at this level are longer with more complex topics and implications.

Students are expected to catch the nuances and attitudes that aren’t expressed directly. So if the students fully understood all the written material, the tasks should target more profound areas to tackle and analyze.

Critical Response Cards

Assign students different roles such as summarizer, questioner, and critic. Each student reads the same article and prepares a response based on their role. As an option, you can use randomizers (like Wheel of Fortune or the Classroom screen tool) to assign the roles randomly.

Procedure:

Pre-teach or revise role responsibilities. You can give more reading pieces by presenting example statements for each role. It can be based on the part of the text you're going to assign to them.
Give students a shared text. The best ones would be controversial or opinionated pieces.
Assign or let them choose roles.
After reading, they meet in mixed-role groups to share perspectives.
Follow up with a group discussion or written reflection that blends the different viewpoints.

Debate Prep Reading

Students read two opposing texts and prepare arguments for a structured class debate. Note, it’s best when your students are familiar with the format of debates, meaning they know the structure and timing.

Procedure:

Select two short articles or excerpts with contrasting viewpoints. Again, modern textbooks provide some good pieces of such texts, so you can use this activity.
Divide the class into two groups; assign each a position.
Students identify supporting arguments and counterpoints from the text. Remember, they need to support their position with text evidence.
In teams, they build their cases and prepare rebuttals. This part is the most time-consuming. Make sure they know the procedure or have examples.
Conduct the debate with a moderator, using key phrases for argumentation. Make clear to students that they must use the textual evidence they found in their texts.

What If? Twist the Plot

Students read a story, change a key event, and discuss or write how the story would change.

Procedure:

Choose a narrative text with a clear plot (e.g., short story or novel excerpt).
After reading, students identify a pivotal event. They discuss why they decided so. It can be preceded by an ordering task or a missing part for a better understanding of the text. It will help your students to highlight the most important parts.
In groups, they change that event and collaboratively create a new version of the plot.
Present the alternative story to other students in groups so they can compare. There is a chance that students will identify different parts as pivotal points, so some nice discussion based on the text can occur.
Make them decide or vote for the most creative/possible/fantastic/profound (and you can come up with way more ideas for that) plot twist. Alternatively, you can ask students to guess what parts were changed and if they agree or disagree with the ideas.

Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill that evolves with the learner. From basic decoding and vocabulary building to interpreting tone and critiquing arguments, students benefit most from varied, purposeful, and level-appropriate activities.