FOR-PD’s Reading Strategy of the Month
Adopted and Adapted by Dr. Vicky Zygouris-Coe & Catherine Glass

Rationale:

"No comprehension activity has a longer or more pervasive tradition than asking students questions about their reading, whether this occurs before, during, or after reading (Duke & Pearson, 2002) Questioning has long been used by teachers as a way to guide and monitor student learning. "Research shows that teacher questioning strongly supports and advances students' learning from reading (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)." Questioning is effective for improving comprehension because it gives the students a purpose for reading, focuses attention on what must be learned, helps develop active thinking while reading, helps monitor comprehension, helps review content, and relates what is learned to what is already known (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Research findings suggest that a student's understanding and recall can be readily shaped by the types of questions to which they become accustomed (Duke & Pearson, 2002) Therefore, if inferential understanding is desired, a student's question answering behavior can be shaped by the questions that require them to connect information in the text to their knowledge base. In the state of Florida, the FCAT Reading Test requires such inferential understanding of text.

Taffy Raphael spent time observing students and the strategies students employ while answering questions. She found that many students fell into one of two categories: (1) Those who relied only on their memory or prior knowledge to find answers or (2) those who relied only on the text. These observations revealed the importance of teaching students the relationships between questions and answers. As a result, Raphael (1986) developed an approach called QAR or Question-Answer-Relationships which teaches students how to distinguish questions with answers that are found "in the book" and questions with answers found "in my head." Raphael's (1986) research with QAR has proven that when students are taught to use the strategy their ability to answer questions correctly improves. Raphael also found that through QAR, students developed a language for talking about the strategies they use to answer questions.

Understanding how Question-Answer-Relationships work is crucial for learning. Many students are unaware of the different thinking levels questions may elicit (Buehl, 2001). Students often times take a literal approach to answering questions, searching for direct statements within the text that answer the question. Many times they feel betrayed and give up when they don't find an explicit answer. Other students rely solely on what they already know regardless of the text. For these students, answering questions becomes an exercise in common sense rather than a thoughtful consideration of new information encountered in print (Buehl, 2001). Question-Answer-Relationships help students to realize the need to consider information in the text and information from their own background knowledge (Raphael, 1986).

Raphael identified two categories of questions: those whose answers are supplied by the author (in-the-book QARs) and those that have answers that need to be developed based on the reader's ideas and experiences (in-my-head QARs). These two categories of questions also have two different types of questions.

In-the-book questions are classified as either Right There questions or Think and Search questions. The answer to Right There questions can be found in one sentence in the text. Students can point to these answers. The answers to Think and Search questions are pieced together using information from different parts of the text.

In-my-head questions are classified as either Author and You questions or On My Own questions. The answer to Author and You questions are not found in the text. Instead they require students to think inferentially. Students must think about what they already know, what the author is telling them, and how both pieces of information fit together. On My Own questions can be answered without even reading the text. The answers to these questions rely solely on their own experiences.

In-the-Book Questions	In-My-Head Questions
Right There Questions The answer is in the text. The words used to make up the question and words used to answer the question are found in the same sentence.	Author and You Questions The answer is not in the story. You need to think about what you already know, what the author tells you, and how it fits together.
Think and Search The answer is in the selection, but you need to put together different pieces of information to find it. The answer comes from different places in the selection.	On My Own The answer is not in the text. You can answer the question without even reading the text. The answer is based solely on your own experiences and knowledge.

(Information for chart from Santa, Havens, Valdes (2004)

How to Use the Strategy:

This is intended as an introduction to the QAR technique. QAR takes time to develop with students. Students will need a fair amount of instruction and guided practice using QAR. The teacher should invest time in modeling using think alouds when teaching students this strategy.

Teacher-directed whole-group instruction:

1. Explain the strategy. Explain to students that there are essentially two categories of questions:

In The Book: the answer can be found in the text. In My Head: the answer cannot be found in the text and must come from the reader's own knowledge or experiences.

For each category of questions there are two types of questions. (You can use QAR posters to illustrate and highlight this information.)

In The Book

Right There: The answer is clearly stated in the text. You can point to the exact sentence in the text. You should point out to students that typically the wording from the question comes from the sentence in which the answer is found. Think and Search: The answer is in the text, but the reader must locate the information and assemble the answer. The information is found in different locations within the text.

In My Head

Author and You: the answer cannot be found explicitly in the text. The answers are constructed partly from hints in the text and partly from the readers personal knowledge base. The text will not directly address the question, but the answer is implied. On My Own: answers to these questions rely solely on the reader's personal knowledge. The answer is not based on the text. These types of questions can be answered without reading the text.

2. Demonstrate the strategy. To teach this strategy, teachers should use an example that clearly distinguishes between the different types of questions. Demonstrate how you determine question type. For in the book questions, show students how to find the answers to the questions in the text. For in the head questions, demonstrate the though processes used to answer these questions.

3. Guide students to apply the strategy. As a class, have students decide the QAR for each question and explain their reasoning. Discuss using the QAR strategy. The teacher should give students feedback on their use of the strategy. You can use the Modified QAR worksheet below to guide students in using the QAR strategy.

4. Practice individually or in small groups. Divide students into groups of three and have them practice using QARs. Students should identify the QAR for each question and then give the answer. Students can use the Modified QAR worksheet below to independently practice using the QAR strategy.

5. Reflect. Discuss the QAR technique and how it helps students to better understand the text. Talk about which types of questions require the most thought and how students identified the QAR. At this point, students can complete a journal activity answering these two questions: How does understanding the QAR strategy help you comprehend information? How can you apply the strategy on your own?

You may need to go through this routine a few times before students catch on to the strategy. For those students who need additional work, you can form small groups of students who need additional help using the QAR strategy. It is important that students learn to generalize this strategy across settings and see the value of the strategy when completing work from other content areas.

Variations:

QARs do not have to be used exclusively with text. They can be used with tables, graphs, pictures, music and art. Included in the resources is a lesson plan for using QAR with pictures.

As students become comfortable with identifying types of questions and answering them, students can begin writing examples of their own questions in lieu of responding to your questions. Student-generated questions can be exchanged with other classmates who then answer and classify the student-produced questions.

Teaching QAR is also an excellent way of preparing students to take standardized assessments such as FCAT. See Duke and Ritchhart's online article No Pain, High Gain.


Ideas for Assessment:

Teachers can use several different forms of assessment when evaluating the student's ability to use QARs. Assessment can be done informally using anecdotal records and observations. You can evaluate the student's understanding of the QAR strategy by using comprehension sheets that are completed during lessons and activities. Students can also write journal entries explaining the QAR strategy and why or how it is helpful in comprehending what they read.

Teachers can also use a rubric to assess student understanding of the QAR strategy. The following rubric comes from a lesson plan found on www.readwritethink.org.

(Click on the graphic above to go to a pdf file of the Modified QAR worksheet.)

The elementary example below used an FCAT sample passage for fourth grade - The Red Fox pg. 4-9.

(Click on the graphic above to go to a pdf file of a sample elementary Modified QAR worksheet.)

The secondary example below used an FCAT sample passage for ninth grade - Dive In! Careers in Oceanography.

(Click on the graphic above to go to a pdf file of a sample secondary Modified QAR worksheet.)

Resources
For more informative links on prediction strategies see the following:

QAR Handout -
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson232/question.pdf

Lesson Plan: Guiding Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using Question Answer Relationships
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=227

Lesson Plan: Using QARs to Develop Comprehension and Reflective Reading Habits
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=232

Lesson Plan: Applying Question-Answer Relationships to Pictures
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=370

Reading Quest QAR Information
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/qar.html

The Winter, 2005 edition of the Project CRISS newsletter has additional information on Question-Answer-Relationships
http://www.projectcriss.com/projectcriss/newsletters/comments.pdf

References

Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. Washington, DC: The U.S. Department of Education.

Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom strategies for interactive learning, 2nd edition. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Duke, N. & Pearson, D. (2002), Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In Farstrup, A. & Samuels, S. (Ed.) What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 205-242). Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Duke, N. & Ritchhart (n.d.) No pain, high gain: Standardized test preparation. Retrieved February 10, 2005, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/nopain.htm

Raphael, T. (1986). Teaching question answer relationships, revisited. The Reading Teacher (39) 6, 516-522.

Santa, C., Havens, L., Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating independence for student-owned strategies. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

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Last Updated December 06, 2004
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