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QAR

Page history last edited by Caitlin Bailey 15 years, 9 months ago

Strategy: QAR-Question and Answer Relationship

 

Rationale:

Simply put, because it is a reading strategy.  In this author’s mind reading is more important than writing for the simple fact one has to be able to read before he or she can write.  Used properly “good questions can guide students’ search for information, lead them to consider difficult ideas, and prompt new insights” (p.197).  Based on experience a student at the middle school level students will probably incur a question that falls within one of the four basic questions and answer relationship categories of QAR.

 

 

Process:

  • Begin with introduction and teacher modeling of the four basic question and answer relationship questions.
  • Before answering the questions Identify them by categorizing them below

In    The

Book

In      My

Head

Right There (textually explicit)

Putting It Together (textually implicit)

Author and You

On your Own

1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Have students get into groups of four and have them read a small passage and label the four style of questions. 
  • Follow this exercise with student pairing and executing the same procedure with a new passage. 
  • Hand out a reading to all students and have each student write their own questions in relation to the QAR technique.

 

ii

Alvermann, Donna, Stephen Phelps, & Victoria Ridgeway.  (2007). Content Area Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms.  Boston: Pearson, p.197.

 

 

Other Procedures

 

 

I have used QAR in my classroom for a little over a year now. My students are becoming comfortable with the terms and the use of the strategy. I would like to take it to another level. I will explicitly teach the strategy and be sure they are comfortable with it, and then I will create a two-strategy activity with it. Given a mid-length text such as a non-fiction article at their independent reading level, I will have students do a collaborative reading and discussion of the text. After they have finished their reading and discussion, students will be responsible for creating 8-10 questions based on this text.  They need to create at least two from each level of questioning. Their questions will be given to another group as a quiz (if there is another group at that reading level). If the group is the only one reading that specific text, their questions will become a quiz for them the next day (or two). This could also be mixed in with the jigsaw method where each group separates, addresses a part of the text, constructs two questions (one from each major category of QAR) and returns to the group to teach them. The constructed questions could become a quiz for the group if they were well constructed questions. Any student-constructed questions will take time to develop and become sound/reliable enough to use, so this may end up being further down the line after they have become better at recognizing what a good question entails.

Contributed by Lisa Holton

 

QAR is a very useful way to get kids thinking on different levels and to get them to recognize that inquiry is a valid way of reading.  I have used QAR in my classroom with a focus on deepening interaction with text and with test-taking skills.  Students read text and write own questions they have while reading.  After they have completed the reading, they must go back through their questions and label if they are "right there, at the surface, below the surface."  They should be asking all three kinds as they read or they are only interacting with the text on a surface level.  QAR is also useful in developing discussion skills and literature circles.  When students can recognize what makes a good discussion question they become deeper thinkers.  For test-taking, we have gone through a standardized test (previous year versions) and examined what kinds of questions the test is asking.  If helps students raise their level of awareness for what is expected on a test, how to recognize clues and cues to the level of htinking requried, and saves them time spent looking for right there answers when they have to go below the surface. 

Contributed by Caitlin B

 

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