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: Number & Operations—Fractions
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.1 Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3 Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.d Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator by reasoning about their size. Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of comparisons with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

2. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?
© Andia/Latitude Stock
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. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?
A dredging boat stirs up algae to harvest in the shallow Atlantic waters near France’s Glénan Islands. But that’s hardly the most interesting thing about the archipelago.
Open only for the summer season, the Glénans are a popular weekend getaway. Sailing, riding in glass-bottom boats, and other nautical activities are popular. The white sand beaches and a lagoon shared by the nine main islands have prompted many to call Glénan “the Breton Tahiti.”
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. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?1
Web Search
What is a numerator and what is a denominator? In this question, what will be representing the numerator? The denominator? 2
Image Search
Find an image of the Glénan Islands. Can you tell, based on this picture, what fraction of the total islands that each island represents? 3
How many Glénan Islands are there? What counts as a Glénan Island? 4
Are the Glénan Islands the same size? How would this affect what kind of fraction you would create? 5
Thinking
How could you find the total land mass that the Glénan Islands make up?
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. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?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. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?1
Web Search
What is a numerator and what is a denominator? In this question, what will be representing the numerator? The denominator? 2
Image Search
Find an image of the Glénan Islands. Can you tell, based on this picture, what fraction of the total islands that each island represents? 3
How many Glénan Islands are there? What counts as a Glénan Island? 4
Are the Glénan Islands the same size? How would this affect what kind of fraction you would create? 5
Thinking
How could you find the total land mass that the Glénan Islands make up?
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. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?1
Web Search
What is a numerator and what is a denominator? In this question, what will be representing the numerator? The denominator?
(Possible queries: “for kids, what is a numerator?”, “for kids, what is a denominator?”, “for kids, understanding fractions”).
From
The numerator of a fraction is the number on the top, just as the denominator is the number on the bottom. In the fraction 1/2, the numerator is one, and in the fraction 3/4, the numerator is three. The numerator tells you how many pieces of pie you're going to get to eat. If the fraction is 1/2, that means you cut the pie into two equal size pieces and then choose one of the pieces: you get one out of two pieces, or half the pie. If the fraction is 3/6, that means you cut the pie into six equal pieces and then choose three of the pieces. You eat three out of six pieces, or, again, half of the pie.
Students should then think about how to apply these definitions to the case of the Glénan Islands. They should determine that the total number (or total size) of the Glénan Islands would be the denominator (or the entire pie) and each island would be the numerator (representing just a part of that pie).

8. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?2
Image Search
Find an image of the Glénan Islands. Can you tell, based on this picture, what fraction of the total islands that each island represents?
(Possible query: “Bing/Images: map of Glénan Islands”, “Bing/Maps: Glénan Islands, France”).
It may be helpful for students to first search for the location of the Glénan Islands (according to they are an archipelago located off the coast of France. They are located in the south of Finistere, near Concarneau and Fouesnant, and comprise seven major islands). Students can then search for an image, or use Bing Maps to zoom in on the islands based on what they know of their location.
Students should note that on a map it’s hard to discern what the Glénan Islands are and they seem to be represented by one larger island, instead of a much smaller archipelago. Because of this, it’s hard to determine, based on image alone, what fraction of the Glenan Islands each island makes up and difficult to know, based on the map, which islands are even part of the Glénan Islands .

9. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?3
Web Search
How many Glénan Islands are there? What counts as a Glénan Island?
(Possible queries: “what are the Glénan Islands?”, “what is a Glénan Island?”).
From
They comprise seven major islands: Saint-Nicolas, the Loc'h, Penfret, Cigogne, Drenec, Bananec, and Brunec. In addition, there are over a dozen smaller islets.
In other words, the Glénan Islands are made up of seven major islands and many smaller islets. The definition of what makes a Glénan Island would depend on if the smaller islets are counted. Students should discuss whether they think these smaller islets should be included or not, and how that would affect the fraction they develop.

10. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?4
Web Search
Are the Glénan Islands the same size? How would this affect what kind of fraction you would create?
(Possible queries: “size of Glénan Islands”, “Bing/Maps: Glénan Islands”).
To get to this answer, it may be helpful for students to first search for the names of a few Glénan Islands so that they can look specifically for their sizes by name. (According to there are seven major islands: Saint-Nicolas, the Loc'h, Penfret, Cigogne, Drenec, Bananec, and Brunec). Students can then look up the sizes of these islands or view them on a map in order to determine if these islands appear to be the same size or not. Students should also understand that in addition to the seven major islands, there are many smaller islets. This would mean that each island is not an equal fraction. Some islands may be a greater part of the total land mass of the islands. Students should think about what this would mean mathematically in terms of denominators. For example, one larger island may comprise 1/3 of the whole island land mass, and another islet may only be 1/20.

11. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?5
Thinking
How could you find the total land mass that the Glénan Islands make up?
It may be difficult for students to find the exact land area of each island, but they should think conceptually about how they would determine what the total land mass of all the islands would be. Students should think about this question as a way of finding the denominator for the fractions (i.e. the whole pie, or total land mass of the islands). They should think about how they could look up the area of each island and islet and add them together to find the total amount of land that the islands take up. That way, they could figure out the area of each one individually and will know what to put as the denominator beneath it that represents the total.

12. What fraction of the total Glénan Islands does each island account for?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Rather than solve to find exactly what fraction each island or islet accounts for out of the total land mass of the Glénan Islands, students should think conceptually about how they would go about this. At this point they should be able to articulate that although there are 7 main islands, they differ in size (and are accompanied by small islets), so they would not each be 1/7. In order to find the true fraction that each island takes up, they would need to solve to find the total land mass of all the islands together and use this as a denominator. Each island would have a numerator that accounts for its individual size. Most likely, the fractions would not be equivalent to each other, because the size of each island varies.