1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on the Microsoft Educator Network.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location, take a Skype lesson on today’s topic, or invite a guest speaker to expand on today’s subject. And if you are using Windows 8, the panoramas in the MSN Travel App are great teaching tools. We have thousands of other education apps available on Windows here.
Ja'Dell Davis is a Los Angeles native who currently divides her time between New York City and Madison, Wisconsin. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, pursing a PhD in Sociology. Ja’Dell previously taught high school in Philadelphia public schools, and implemented college access and academic enrichment programming in Chester, Pennsylvania and New York City in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Ja’Dell received her B.A. from Swarthmore College with a special major in History and Educational Studies, and a minor in Black Studies. She completed her M.S.Ed in Secondary School Education at the University of Pennsylvania.  In addition to her studies and work in the education field, Ja’Dell is a dancer, musician, avid people watcher, and Scrabble enthusiast.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.4Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

2. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?
© George Steinmetz/Corbis
© Dave Yoder/Corbis
© Matthew Kuhns/Tandem Stills + Motion
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?
These depressions in the sands of the Sahara Desert allow people to reach the aquifers of Adjder oasis here in south-central Algeria. Traditionally, people raised the water by hand using beasts of burden, but today, electric pumps draw water from the wells to irrigate palm trees and other vegetation on the floor of the craters. Fences along the rims prevent the shifting sands from burying the gardens and pumps. In addition to irrigating these crops, the pumps send water to residents of Timimoun, a centuries-old village southeast of the oasis. Visitors to Timimoun often come to travel the Sebkha Circuit, a hike through portions of the Sahara that offers views of the dunes, caves, and a salt lake.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?1
Map Search
Find the location of the Sahara Desert on a map. 2
Web Search
What is the literal definition of an oasis, based in geography? 3
How have oases been useful to people living in deserts? 4
Find a more figurative meaning of an oasis. 5
Thinking
Is there a place in your home, community, or another part of the world that you would consider an oasis (figurative meaning)?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?1
Map Search
Find the location of the Sahara Desert on a map. 2
Web Search
What is the literal definition of an oasis, based in geography? 3
How have oases been useful to people living in deserts? 4
Find a more figurative meaning of an oasis. 5
Thinking
Is there a place in your home, community, or another part of the world that you would consider an oasis (figurative meaning)?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?1
Map Search
Find the location of the Sahara Desert on a map.
Using the “maps” link on the Bing search page, and the search term “Sahara desert”, find the location here:

8. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?2
Web Search
What is the literal definition of an oasis, based in geography?
(Possible Search Queries: ”what is an oasis”)
From Dictionary (
a small fertile or green area in a desert region, usually having a spring or well.

9. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?3
Web Search
How have oases been useful to people living in deserts?
(Possible Search Queries: ”what is an oasis”)
From Wikipedia (
The location of oases has been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas; caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames, and Kufra, situated in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara Desert.

10. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?4
Web Search
Find a more figurative meaning of an oasis.
(Possible Search Queries: )
From Free Dictionary (
A situation or place preserved from surrounding unpleasantness; a refuge: an oasis of serenity amid chaos.

11. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?5
Thinking
Is there a place in your home, community, or another part of the world that you would consider an oasis (figurative meaning)?
Students should consider a location that is a refuge or other characteristics of the figurative conception of an oasis.

12. How are the literal and figurative conceptions of an “oasis” used in everyday lives?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.