The present proposal reports the needs analysis, the design of a reading course, and its partial application as well. Moreover, the evaluation of the impact of the reading course in students´ language learning processes to develop reading competences in ninth graders at Institucion Educativa John F. Kennedy (IEJFK) of Soledad, Atlantico (Col). The application of needs analysis was carried out through questionnaires in order to gather information from the context in terms of strengths and constraints. This way, this stage was focused on the analysis and interpretation of the data. As a result, this process showed evidences of the low-level use of reading strategies of students at Institucion Educativa John F. Kennedy and the effect on their level of reading competence. For these reasons, these findings were the points of departure for the present proposal. The findings of the needs analysis process were the grounds for the construction of the reading course based on reading strategies in order to improve their reading comprehension levels. In form of a pedagogical intervention with the purpose to instruct students with a chosen set of reading strategies for help students to surpass their difficulties in reading comprehension. This way, the aim of the present proposal was impacting the necessity of having a set of reading strategies to face the written material in their academic and working life. The present study followed the action research approach for developing of the inquiry. Concerning the outcomes of the project, students developed use and practice on a set of reading strategies to interpret and analyze a text. Also, they developed certain degree of consciousness over the importance of reading strategies to improve their reading competence levels.