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 our Partners In Learning site.
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. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.9 Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.

2. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English?
© AirPano
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 could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English?
On either side of the fjord known as Hjørundfjorden, on Norway’s west coast, the Sunnmøre Alps reach up to, and sometimes above, the clouds. Many small fishing villages line the shores, like Sæbø, the closest village to Skårasalen Mountain, an increasingly popular skiing destination. After a long climb, daring skiers can carve their way down the steep eastern slope of Skårasalen, ending nearly at the waters of the fjord.
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 could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 1
Web Search
Find a list of the letters in the Norwegian alphabet online. What letters do you see that aren’t in the English alphabet? 2
Video Search
Find a video or audio clip of someone pronouncing the Norwegian alphabet. Are there any sounds that we don’t have in the English alphabet? How would you write them the way that they sound? 3
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “æ” in it? 4
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “ø” in it? 5
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “å” in it?
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 could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 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 could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 1
Web Search
Find a list of the letters in the Norwegian alphabet online. What letters do you see that aren’t in the English alphabet? 2
Video Search
Find a video or audio clip of someone pronouncing the Norwegian alphabet. Are there any sounds that we don’t have in the English alphabet? How would you write them the way that they sound? 3
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “æ” in it? 4
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “ø” in it? 5
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “å” in it?
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 could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 1
Web Search
Find a list of the letters in the Norwegian alphabet online. What letters do you see that aren’t in the English alphabet?
(Possible queries: “Norwegian alphabet”, “Norwegian alphabet online”).
Alphabet can be found here:
Students should note three unrecognizable letters: “Æ and æ”, “Ø ø”, and “Å å”.

8. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 2
Video Search
Find a video or audio clip of someone pronouncing the Norwegian alphabet. Are there any sounds that we don’t have in the English alphabet? How would you write them the way that they sound?
(Possible queries: “pronunciation Norwegian alphabet”, “how to pronounce Norwegian alphabet”).
An audio pronunciation of the alphabet can be found here:
Students should listen and note what letters sound different than they do in English. In addition to the letters that look different, some letters that we have in the English alphabet are pronounced differently in Norwegian (for example, “a”, “g”, “h”, etc….). Students may also note the pronunciation of letters that are new to them, and attempt to write out their sounds. For example, they note that “æ“ is pronounced like our “a” in “way”, for example, and that “ø “ is pronounced like our “eu” (as in “feud”), and “å“ is pronounced like “aw” in “law.”

9. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 3
Web Search
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “æ” in it?
(Possible queries: “differences in English and Norwegian alphabet”, “how to pronounce Norwegian alphabet in English”, “Norwegian alphabet, how to pronounce “æ”).
Students should find an online resource that talks about the Norwegian alphabet (like the one found here: in order to figure out the correct pronunciation of “æ.” Some websites may use English words to describe the sound this Norwegian letter makes. In this case, the website describes “æ” by saying, “although it looks like it should be “ae”, it is actually more like a clipped “a”, as in hat.”

10. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 4
Web Search
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “ø” in it?
(Possible queries: “differences in English and Norwegian alphabet”, “how to pronounce Norwegian alphabet in English”, “Norwegian alphabet, how to pronounce “ø”).
Students should find an online resource that talks about the Norwegian alphabet (like the one found here: in order to figure out the correct pronunciation of “ø”. Some websites may use English words to describe the sound this Norwegian letter makes. In this case, the website describes “ø” by saying it is like the “ir” in “third.”

11. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English? 5
Web Search
What is an English word that has the sound of the Norwegian letter “å” in it?
(Possible queries: “differences in English and Norwegian alphabet”, “how to pronounce Norwegian alphabet in English”, “Norwegian alphabet, how to pronounce “å”).
Students should find an online resource that talks about the Norwegian alphabet (like the one found here: in order to figure out the correct pronunciation of “å”). ”. Some websites may use English words to describe the sound this Norwegian letter makes. In this case, the website describes “å”) by saying it is like the “aw” in law, and short: like the “o” in pot.

12. How could you use an understanding of the Norwegian alphabet to rewrite the names of these sights in English?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should gather the pronunciation information together in order to “translate” these Norwegian place names into words that use the English alphabet. It may be especially helpful for students to think about the English words that contain the sounds of these Norwegian letters in them.
Answers may vary (the effort of matching sound to letter is more important than an exact translation) and students may have fun attempting to pronounce these long place names in English. For example:
Hjørundfjorden: Could be rewritten and pronounced as Hjirundfjorden.
Sunnmøre: Could be rewritten and pronounced as Sunnmire.
Sæbø: Could be rewritten and pronounced as Sabir.
Skårasalen: Could be rewritten and pronounced as Skawrasalen.