The document discusses QAR (Question-Answer Relationship), a framework developed by Taffy Raphael to help students understand where to find answers to questions - either in the text or from their own background knowledge. QAR categorizes questions as either "Right There", where the answer is explicitly stated in the text, or "Think and Search", where students must synthesize information from different parts of the text. It is presented as a tool to enhance comprehension by showing students the relationship between questions and answers and helping them analyze, comprehend, and respond to concepts in text.

1. Question Answer Relationship
Enhancing Comprehension
Module 5

2. Team A
ROSIE AMSTUTZ
JASON PRICE
MEG TROHA
GARY HANSEN
EMILY CAVENDISH
SALLY PATTON
JEN DODGE
ANDREW KRICKENBARGER

3. QUESTION ANSWER
RELATIONSHIP
“Taffy Raphael developed QAR as a tool for clarifying how students can approach the task of reading texts and
answering questions. It helps them realize the need to consider both information in the text and information
from their own background knowledge. Without QAR instruction students often over rely on text information
or background knowledge.”
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/QARQuestionAnswerRelationshipTeachingChildrenWheretoSeekAnswerstoQuestions.pdf

4. Why Use It?
o QAR
EXPLICITLY SHOWS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
CATEGORIZES DIFFERENT TYPES AND LEVELS OF
QUESTIONS
HELPS STUDENT TO ANALYZE, COMPREHEND,
AND RESPOND TO TEXT CONCEPTS
HELPS REFUTE THE COMMON MISCONCEPTION
HELD BY STUDENTS THAT THE TEXT HAS ALL THE
ANSWERS
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/QARQuestionAnswerRelationshipTeachingChildrenWheretoSeekAnswerstoQuestions.pdf

5. White Socks Only
by Evelyn Coleman
“When Grandma was a little
girl in Mississippi, she sneaked into
town one day. It was a hot day—the
kind of hot where a firecracker
might light up by itself. But when this
little girl saw the “Whites Only” sign
on the water fountain, she had no
idea what she would spark when she
took off her shoes and—wearing her
clean white socks—stepped up to
drink.”
“Bravery, defiance, and a
touch of magic win out over hatred
in this acclaimed story by Evelyn
Coleman. Tyrone Geter’s paintings
richly evoke its heat, mood, and
legendary spirit.”
http://www.storylineonline.net/

6. WHY THIS BOOK WAS
SELECTED
 This book was selected because it was readily available to all teammates via the world wide
web. (Rosie)
 It has "big issues" that allow for questions that go beyond what's in the book. (Gary)
 It is a picture book suitable for middle school students and this affords us an opportunity to
demonstrate how effectively picture books can be used in those grade levels. (Rosie)
 For me, as a middle/high school teacher, it's closer to my experience. (Gary)
 It is a picture book that can be used to develop the questions needed to fit all the
categories needed. (Rosie)

7. QAR: White Socks Only
IN THE BOOK
QUESTIONS

8. RIGHT THERE QUESTIONS: The answer is in one place in the text.
Words from the question and words that answer the question are
often "right there" in the same sentence.
 What were three things the Chicken
Man was known for in town?
 Why did the girl (grandmother) hold
her arms out to her sides when she
was walking in to town?
 Why did the girl (grandmother) walk
faster when she passed the Chicken
Man sitting on his front porch?
 What simile does the girl
(grandmother) use to compare the
egg cooking on the side walk?

9. RIGHT THERE
Continued…
 What did the Chicken Man give to the little girl?
 What does the girl (grandmother) think the sign “Whites Only” means?
 When the black people continued to drink from the fountain, what did the angry white man
do?
 Why didn’t the Chicken Man have to bend over very far to drink from the fountain?
 What did the girl’s (grandmother) mom say when the black people told her what happened
in town?

10.  How did the little girl (grandma) inspire
other black people in the town?
 What did the little girl (grandma) intend
to do when she went into town?
 What did grandma's mom mean when
she said “I guess you can go to town by
yourself now cause you're old enough to
do some good?”
 What does the author tell us that gives
us an idea of the relations between white
and black people when grandma was
little?
THINK AND SEARCH QUESTIONS: The answer is in the text.
Readers need to "think and search," or put together different parts
of the text, to find the answer. The answer can be within a
paragraph, across paragraphs, or even across chapters, and books.

11. THINK AND SEARCH…
Continued….
 How did the little girl know what her grandmother was going to say when she asked if she
could go into town by herself?
 What triggered the grandmother to tell the story to her granddaughter?
 Who is the grandmother’s story about?
 What was the result of the grandmother drinking out of the “Whites Only” drinking
fountain?
 Why did the little girl wait for a hot day?
 Why did the little girl take 2 eggs to town?

12. QAR: White Socks Only
ON MY OWN
QUESTIONS

13. ON MY OWN QUESTIONS: The answer is not in the text.
Readers need to use their own ideas and experiences to answer the
question.
 What are some benefits of stories
handed down through oral tradition
like the one handed down by the
grandmother in White Socks Only?
 The grandmother tells the young girl
she can not go into town alone until
she is big enough to do some good
there. This is the same thing that her
mother told her when she was a
child. Given the change in times,
how do you think the young girl in
the story might be able to do some
good? How might you be able to do
some good if you were to ask your
parents to go into town alone?

14. ON MY OWN….
Continued
 In real life, do you really think it is possible for children to inspire change? If so, what kinds
of things have you seen children inspire adults to do? Why do you think adults are not
moved to make change themselves? More specifically, why do you think the adults in the
book, never went to take a drink from the drinking fountain?
 In what circumstances have you had to stand up for someone or something? Did other
people come to your support as happened in the book? If not, how would that have
changed your conviction in what you were standing up for?
 In the story, the girl does not understand what she did wrong to elicit the negative reaction
from the angry white man; therefore, the realization that she is not welcome by him and the
group of white people is even more hurtful and confusing. In our classroom, how can we
promote an environment where all classmates are valued and included and avoid having any
one of us feeling hurt and confused as the girl in the story did when she felt unwelcome and
unwanted by the group?

15.  Looking at the picture on the cover, and
reading the title, what do you think this
book is about?
 What was the “Whites Only” sign all
about? Did these signs really exist?
When? Why?
 How do you think it felt when the egg
was slinking down [her] dress and
legs? (This could help put your students
into the scene, and feel some of what the
little girl is feeling.)
AUTHOR AND ME: The answer is not in the text. To answer the
question, readers need to think about how the text and what they
already know fit together.

16. AUTHOR AND ME
Continued…
 Why was the white man going to whip the little girl? (Depending upon the age of the kids
and how you are using the book, the man can represent the whole segregationist white
south while the girl can represent the whole black race being oppressed at the time, or the
discussion can be more narrowly about this specific incident.)
 Why do you think the author wrote a book about this topic?

17. References
 http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/QARQuestionAnswerRelationshipTeachingChildrenWheretoSeekAnswerst
 http://www.storylineonline.net/
 Forum discussions