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.
Alice Keeler is a mother of 5 and a teacher in Fresno, California. She has her B.A in Mathematics, M.S. in Educational Media Design and Technology and is currently working on a doctorate in Educational Technology with an emphasis in games and simulations. EdTech speaker, blogger, and presenter. Founder of coffeeEDU, a 1 hour conference event for educators. New Media Consortium Horizon report advisory panel member. High school math teacher for 14 years. Currently teaching pre-service teachers curriculum, instruction and technology at California State University Fresno. Teaches online for Fresno Pacific University in the Masters in Educational Technology. Passionate that kids are not failures, researches gamification in education to increase student motivation.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: English Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W E Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

2. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?
© Silanes Travel Photography/Getty Images
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 castle and fort location and designs determined?
The earliest incarnation of Predjama Castle in Slovenia dates back to the late 13th century. It’s been rebuilt twice since then with the current Renaissance-style building constructed in 1570.
Perched within a natural stone wall with a high natural arch above, it’s a well-fortified spot for a castle. Best of all is the “hidden” entrance within the castle, linking it to Postojna Cave below. The cave was once used as a way to enter and exit the castle without being seen.
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 castle and fort location and designs determined?1
Image Search
Use Bing images to locate castles and forts. What elements of the design and location contribute to the defense and fortification? 2
Web Search
What structural characteristics do most castles and forts share that contribute to their defensibility. 3
What geographical characteristics do many castles and forts share that contribute to their defensibility. 4
Aside from defensibility, what other factors play a role in determining the location of a castle or fort? 5
Thinking
If you were to build a fort or castle in your region, where and how would you build it to ensure that it is fortified?
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 castle and fort location and designs determined?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 castle and fort location and designs determined?1
Image Search
Use Bing images to locate castles and forts. What elements of the design and location contribute to the defense and fortification? 2
Web Search
What structural characteristics do most castles share that contribute to their defensibility. 3
What geographical characteristics do many castles share that contribute to their defensibility. 4
Aside from defensibility, what other factors play a role in determining the location of a castle or fort? 5
Thinking
If you were to build a fort or castle in your region, where and how would you build it to ensure that it is fortified?
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 castle and fort location and designs determined?1
Image Search
Use Bing images to locate castles and forts. What elements of the design and location contribute to the defense and fortification?
(Possible Search Query: “Castles and forts”)
Sources
Many of the castles and forts are built from stones. This makes them strong and durable. The forts are in the front along the perimeter to shield the castle from any impact and keep the battles or invaders.

8. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?2
Web Search
What structural characteristics do most castles share that contribute to their defensibility.
(Possible Search Query: ”castle locations and design”)
Sources
Most castles and forts have mottes to keep people from digging tunnels and infiltrate the castle. They also have multiple layers of defence that intruders would have to get through one at a time. Another thing that they did was design staircases to the benefit of the defenders. The spiral staircases would go counter clockwise so that the invaders swordhand was limited in what it could do, and the defenders sword hand had more freedom. The staircases also had different sized steps so that the defenders who are used to the rhythm of the steps would be able to maneuver easily while intruders would stumble and often fall in the dark.

9. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?3
Web Search
What geographical characteristics do many castles share that contribute to their defensibility.
(Possible Search Query: “castles defense geography”)
Sources
Geographical characteristics of castles:
built on hills with difficult and limited access
surrounded by wet ground- makes access difficult and mining impossible
built on the coast or next to a river- easy access/ escape route

10. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?4
Web Search
Aside from defensibility, what other factors play a role in determining the location of a castle or fort?
(Possible Search Query: “castle design”, “castle location”)
Sources
Castles were often built in a location that is convenient to control the population. They would also look for locations near a good port.

11. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?5
Thinking
If you were to build a fort or castle in your region, where and how would you build it to ensure that it is fortified?
Answers may vary. Students may include that they would build their castle on a hill or next to a river. They might want to build it in an area that has wet ground. They may also want to build it in a location that is central to the population so that it is convenient to rule over them.

12. How are castle and fort location and designs determined?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.