QAR has many uses and can be used across subjects and levels. I will focus in on a 5th grade resource room lesson on character traits. The first lesson in this unit was defining character and physical traits. We spent time sorting traits into categories and then came up with a definition for each. Physical traits are what someone looks like- what you can see when looking at them. Character traits are what their personality is like or what they act like. The student also began filling in a miniature picture of a human body and on the outside she put physical traits describing her and on the inside she put character traits describing her. We added to this at the end of each of the four lessons in the unit to help tie each lesson to a concrete example.
For the second lesson in this unit I had the student read a story on Thomas Edison. She was to place sticky notes at places in the biography that either explicitly stated a trait, or on sentences that alluded to a trait. On the sticky notes she was to write what the character trait was that the sentence referred to or the physical traits. Here is an example of what that looks like- this example is using a different book than the one I used in the lesson, but it shows how the sticky notes can be used. 
The following website, http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/question_answer_relationship/, as mentioned in my previous post on this strategy, goes into some detail about the QAR and different types of questions. This type of exercise and interaction with the text would be, “Right There Questions: Literal questions whose answers can be found in the text. Often the words used in the question are the same words found in the text” (Reading Rockets, 2013). The student is being asked to find something specific in the text and identify it.
In my experience as a teacher (11 years) I have found that students gain more comprehension when they are asked to interact with the text. The QAR provides them with different types of question that force student to interact with the text in a way that increases comprehension.
There is research to support the use of this strategy as well, according to the article entitled Question answer relationships (QAR) in the primary grades: Laying the foundation for reading
comprehension, it is important to start this strategy in the primary grades to increase reading comprehension in students as they move onto upper grade levels. “’I have read the chapter three times and still can’t find the answer to this question!’ Third, fourth and fifth grade teachers continue to hear this statement from their students as the students look through the text expecting to find the answer written in one sentence. Students continue to become frustrated searching for answers to questions, in both narrative and expository text selections. Question Answer Relationships (QARs) might be one solution to student frustration in upper grades if primary grade teachers introduced this strategy early in students’ education.
The authors’ belief that Question Answer Relationships (QARs) can be effectively taught to students in grades K-2 was explored when early elementary teachers implemented the QAR strategy in their instruction. The outcome confirmed the effectiveness of using QARs with primary grade students” (Kinniburgh & Prew, 2010).
What I like most about this strategy is it also lends itself to both differentiation and integration of several subjects. For example, in the situation I used it in above, I am teaching reading comprehension strategies while the student is also learning about Thomas Edison- Social Studies. This could also easily be used in science as well. As for differentiation, a teacher could provide different questions for different levels. The teacher could either group students in pairs or students can work individually. The teacher could hand out questions according to level. This way each student is working at the level appropriate for him/her and the students can still be reading the same text, so everyone can participate in turn and talk or full class discussions.
The following standards relate both to the QAR and to identification of character and physical traits when reading.
GLE:
2.1.6 Apply comprehension monitoring strategies to understand fiction, nonfiction, informational text, and task-oriented text: monitor for meaning, create mental images, and generate and answer questions: Organize information in a graphic organizer that is appropriate to the text and purpose for reading in order to organize information and comprehend text.
2.2.3 Understand and analyze story Elements: Use knowledge of the situation, characters’ actions, motivations, feelings, and physical attributes to determine characters’ traits.
CCC:
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Reading Standard for informational text 1.Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Reading Standards for literature 1. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
References:
Dell’Olio, J., Donk, T. (2007). Models of teaching: Connecting student learning with standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Kinniburgh, L., Prew, S. (2010). International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education (INT-JECSE), June 2010, 2: 1.
Reading Rockets. Question Answer Relationship, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/question_answer_relationship/
rebeccaaf 