In this information era reading comprehension is an essential skill. Recent standardized international and national test results have demonstrated the students’ low level in reading comprehension skills, especially those who attend public schools. Bearing in mind this fact, this qualitative research study intends to determine to what extent the implementation of contentbased activities might develop A1 (CEFR) eleventh grade students’ reading comprehension and higher order thinking skills (HOTS) of a public school. This proposal is a qualitative action research study in which the teacher is involved in the research as a researcher and as a teacher. Data were collected by implementing a pre and post students’ questionnaires, a pre and post reading comprehension KET test as well as students’ artifacts. The data collected were analyzed by following the stages proposed by the grounded theory principles which are open coding, axial coding and selective coding to determine the most relevant aspects to examine during the implementation of content based activities at this specific context. The analysis of data revealed that content based activities foster learners’ reading comprehension, analysis and evaluation thinking skills. This study extends the understanding of the effectiveness of implementing content based activities in A1 (CEFR) students’ reading comprehension and higher order thinking skills in non-bilingual schools. It also presents noteworthy activities to facilitate the integration of content and language learning into beginner levels, ensuring students’ lifelong learning and success in their academic and professional lives.