Question-Answer Relationships

Share / assign

Why it works

A common and frustrating comprehension failure is the student who understood the text reasonably well but still gets the questions wrong, because they do not understand how the question relates to the text, where its answer is supposed to come from. A student may scour the passage for an answer that was never stated there because it required inference, or may make something up when the answer was sitting plainly in a single sentence, or may ignore their own relevant knowledge because they assume every answer must be in the text. The Question-Answer Relationships framework, developed by Taffy Raphael, makes this invisible dimension of questioning explicit by teaching students to recognize four types of question based on where the answer comes from. The first two are In the Text. Right There questions have an answer stated explicitly in one place, usually in words close to the question, so the student looks for it directly. Think and Search questions have an answer in the text but spread across sentences, paragraphs, or sections that must be gathered and combined, so the student searches and synthesizes rather than looking in one spot. The second two are In My Head. Author and Me questions require combining what the text says with the reader's own knowledge; the answer is not stated but is built from text plus thinking, the territory of inference. On My Own questions can be answered from the reader's own knowledge and experience, sometimes before reading the text at all. Teaching QAR gives students a strategic self-awareness about questions: before hunting for an answer, they ask what kind of question this is and therefore where and how to look, which prevents the mismatches that waste their effort and produce wrong answers. It also helps teachers, who can analyze and balance the questions they ask (are they all Right There recall, or is there genuine inference?), and can teach students the demands of different question types explicitly. QAR is taught by modeling the categories with examples, having students classify questions and justify the classification, and gradually releasing the strategy so students internally ask the question-type question themselves. It is especially helpful for students who read adequately but perform poorly on comprehension questions, and it travels across subjects and into test preparation, where recognizing question types is a real advantage. The workshop helps teachers learn the four QAR categories, classify and balance their own questions, and plan to teach students to recognize where an answer comes from.

The research: Raphael, T. Question-Answer Relationships (QAR).

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: classify questions and teach where answers come from

The heart of the session is learning the four QAR types, classifying your own questions, and planning to teach students to recognize them.

In the Text: Right There (answer stated in one place) and Think and Search (answer gathered across the text).
In My Head: Author and Me (text plus the reader's knowledge, i.e. inference) and On My Own (answerable from the reader's knowledge).
Teach the strategic move: before hunting for an answer, ask what kind of question this is and therefore where and how to look.
Classify and balance your own questions (not all Right There recall), and release the strategy so students ask the question-type question themselves.

Know where the answer comes fromStudents fail questions they understood because they look in the wrong place. QAR teaches them to recognize whether an answer is right there, spread across the text, or partly in their own head, which tells them how to look.

Facilitator notes

The failure is a mismatch, not a comprehension gap; students hunt the text for inferences or ignore their own knowledge.
Use QAR to audit your own questions; a diet of all Right There recall never builds inference.
Release the strategy; the goal is students internally asking what kind of question this is before answering.

Especially powerful for adequate readers who fail questionsFor students who read fine but perform poorly on comprehension questions, QAR targets the exact gap, and it transfers across subjects and into test preparation.

Adapt it

Elementary: start with the two In the Text types, then add In My Head; use clear, concrete examples.
Secondary: use all four types and analyze the question mix in your assessments and texts.
Any setting: model classifying questions aloud before releasing it; students imitate the think-aloud.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

QAR: where does the answer come from?

Teach students to recognize question types: Right There, Think and Search, Author and Me, and On My Own, so they know how and where to look.

A question students failed because they looked in the wrong place:
An In the Text question (Right There or Think and Search):
An In My Head question (Author and Me or On My Own):
The balance of question types I actually ask:
How I teach students to ask the question-type question first:

Make it stick

QAR sticks when students internalize the type question. Close by setting the follow-up:

Name a check-in: are students identifying where an answer comes from before hunting?
Bring one text whose questions you classified and balanced.
Keep releasing the strategy until students ask the type question themselves.

Common questions

How is QAR different from just teaching comprehension strategies?

QAR targets a specific and often overlooked gap: not whether students understand a text, but whether they understand how a question relates to the text and therefore where its answer comes from. Many comprehension strategies focus on making meaning from the text itself, which is essential, but a student can comprehend well and still fail questions because they do not know whether an answer is stated in one place, spread across the text, or requires combining the text with their own knowledge. QAR makes that dimension explicit through its four question types, giving students a strategic self-awareness about questions that complements other comprehension work rather than replacing it. It is particularly valuable for students who read adequately but perform poorly on comprehension questions.

Isn't labeling questions into four types a bit mechanical?

The categories are a scaffold toward an internalized habit, not an end in themselves, which is why the teaching releases responsibility over time. At first students explicitly classify questions and justify the classification, which makes the invisible dimension of where answers come from concrete and discussable. The goal, though, is for students to internalize the move so that, faced with any question, they automatically ask themselves what kind of question it is and therefore how and where to look, without consciously labeling it. Used that way, QAR is not a mechanical sorting exercise but a strategic reading habit that prevents the common mismatches, hunting the text for an inference, or inventing an answer that was stated plainly, that waste effort and produce wrong answers.

Does QAR help with standardized tests?

Yes, and it is one of the more transferable comprehension frameworks for that purpose, because recognizing question types is a genuine advantage on tests. Many students lose points on reading tests not from failing to understand the passage but from mishandling the question, searching the text for an answer that required inference, or overlooking an answer stated directly. Students who have internalized QAR approach each question by first recognizing its type and therefore the right strategy for answering it, which reduces those mismatches. Because QAR travels across subjects and texts, teaching it builds a durable strategic habit rather than a test-specific trick, so it supports genuine comprehension and test performance at the same time, rather than narrowing instruction to test preparation.