Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
QAR: Question Answer Response Strategy
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
(Riverhead Trade Paperback Edition) 2004
Teacher Instruction Sheet
Statement of Purpose:
The Question Answer Response Strategy promotes higher order thinking in your students by asking
them questions that require different levels of thinking. The questions are divided up into four categories: Right
There, Think and Search, the Author and You, and On My Own. Students answer one or two questions from
every category and the reliance on the text for explicit answers becomes less and less as students are required by
the nature of the question to make their own connections and find their own answers by interpreting the text.
The first two questions will deal with the nitty-gritty details of the text in Chapter 17 and to page 219 in Chapter
17, and the next two questions will deal more with the themes that we have been discussing in relation to this
novel such as friendship and forgiveness. By using this strategy student’s comprehension of this novel will
increase as they learn what happened to Hassan in his life and how that impacts Amir.
Context:
As mentioned, this strategy is written for Chapter 16 through page 219 in Chapter 17 in The Kite
Runner. This is the part of the book where Rahim Khan tells us what Hassan has been doing since he and his
father left Kabul. Students learn that this is the last time that Hassan appears in the novel, and it is important to
note the similarities and differences between Amir and Hassan till now. This strategy is intended to be taught
just after students have finished this reading assignment, before they have completed the entire book.
Directions:
• Before handing out the worksheet discuss briefly with the class what happened in the Chapter and why
that is important. Don’t go too deep into the material – that is what the worksheet is for.
• Students need a pen or pencil and a copy of the worksheet found on the next page, and their book.
Before the day of this strategy make sure to remind every student to have their book in class with
them!!! Students will also need to have read this section before performing this activity.
• The worksheet attached gives questions that can be found in Chapter 16 through page 219 in Chapter 17.
There are two questions per level, and a space for students to create their own question about the
material in the same manner as the level indicates.
• Students should be given 20-30 minutes to fill out the worksheet, as needed.
• After completing the assignment, divide students into partners and have them discuss their answers with
their partner. They should also give their partner the questions they created to answer – space is
provided on the worksheet for this.
• To share, have each partnership share two things: First, the best answer that they have to one the
worksheet’s questions. Second, the best question and answer to a question that they created.
• The teacher can facilitate a discussion after the worksheet has been discussed on the chapter and the
themes therein.
• Total discussion time, both in partners and with the class should take 20-30 minutes as needed.
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
Assessment/Summary and Segue:
From this activity the students will learn two main things. The first is they will understand the details
that occur in this section of the novel and why they are important to the text as a whole. Implicit in this is the
understanding and discussion of the themes that are related to this novel. The second thing that students will
learn is that there are different kinds of questions and that they require different information to answer. The
assessment of this can be seen through the student’s worksheets of their answers to questions and the questions
they created themselves.
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
QAR: Question Answer Response Strategy
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
(Riverhead Trade Paperback Edition) 2004
Student Worksheet
This worksheet will help you evaluate and understand the events that took place in Chapter 16 and to page 219
in Chapter 17 – the chapters where Hassan’s life is discussed. This worksheet will also help you evaluate the
events in light of the themes we have been discussing with this novel – themes of friendship, forgiveness, and
atonement. You’ll notice that there are different kinds of questions that require different knowledge to answer.
In the space provided please write a question of a similar nature to the ones that you have answered, but do not
write the answer on the front – do it on a separate piece of paper. So if I were on the Right There section, I
would ask a question that could be answered by looking directly at the text, and write the answer on another
sheet of paper. Your partner will be responsible for writing the answer to your questions later in this activity.
*Note: YOU WILL NEED YOUR BOOK FOR THIS ACTIVITY!!! If you don’t have yours let me know.
Right There:
Right There questions are answered through the details in the text. Keep this in mind when writing your
question for this section. Remember that the answers in the text come from pages 203-219 in your book.
1. Where has Hassan been living all this time? with whom has he been living?
2. What was Hassan’s response when the Taliban took over the government?
Write your question here:
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
Answer to question here:
Think and Search:
Think and Search Questions are about implied details and relationships – things that you know because
it connects to something we already read or it gives just enough details for us to figure it out ourselves.
1. Why is the unexpected visitor’s coming significant?
2. Hassan had planned on naming his first son Ali, but his son was actually named Sohrab. Why would this
be significant to Hassan? Amir?
Write your question here:
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
Answer to question here:
Author and You
The answers to these questions are not explicitly stated in the text; the reader must use their opinion and
interpretation of the text to answer the question. Not all answers will be the same.
1. We learn most of Hassan’s history through Rahim Khan’s description, until the very end when Amir
reads three letters from Hassan. The tone of the letters is familiar and friendly – what is the author
telling Amir about friendship and forgiveness? Is the author telling you the same thing as Amir, or are
you getting a different message about friendship and forgiveness?
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
2. Hassan tells Amir in his letter that he has dreams of blood and corpses, and then almost immediately
after that we learn Hassan was gunned down in the street with his wife. What do you think the author
was trying to achieve by juxtaposing these two images together? Does this connect with other dream
instances in the book – why/why not?
Write your question here:
Answer the question here:
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
On Your Own:
These questions require you to use the text as a springboard to answer the questions.
1. Do you believe that there is a price that must be paid to forgive someone? Why? Is Hassan just a really
forgiving guy, or is there a real price to be paid?
2. When you are little you make a lot of friends. Did you have one that was better than the others? Do you
still have to be friends today? Why? Would Amir and Hassan be friends if they were adults?
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
Write your question here:
Answer the question here:
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
Calista Perazzo
March 16, 2010
QAR Activity Reflection
I think that the QAR is a good activity that can be very useful to students and teacher in
understanding specific parts of a text. I like how there are different kinds of questions that are asked of
the students, requiring them to reach for higher levels of learning that depend on their own opinions as
well as the text. I think that doing that makes the students more aware of the impact that their opinions
and thoughts of the text have on their reading and comprehension. Sharing the questioning activity with
a partner allows students to see that you don’t all think in similar ways – that everyone’s ideas are
different and so their answers are different.
My biggest problem with the QAR is that it is a worksheet, and so some teachers may use it as a
busywork worksheet. Students can smell busywork a mile away, especially in 12th grade (the level of
instruction I have been formatting the strategies for), and teachers who don’t structure the activity well
by giving it a good introduction and conclusion will make it seem like a long and tedious exercise for
minimal points. That is what I hate about worksheets – the possibility of their not being taken seriously
or used correctly.
Teachers need to make sure to clearly note the difference in the levels of questioning as well so
that students are aware that not all questions are the same. I have included the basic instructions on how
to create these questions on the assignment, but I would hope that teachers would take the time to help
students understand the differences between each form of question – that right there questions are
Perazzo, BYU, 2010
Name:______________________________
Period: _________________
Name of Partner:______________________________
simplistic and require strong knowledge of the text, while questions concerning the author and you have
to deal with more of the devices and formatting of the text, as well as the positioning of ideas and
themes. Student’s may or may not pick up on these things, but teachers do and should help students see
the difference.
Perazzo, BYU, 2010