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.
Patrice Berry earned a B. A. in Political Science at Swarthmore College, an M.S.Ed at the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently study college access and completion as a doctoral student at Temple University.  Patrice is currently the Academic Affairs Director at College Track (East Palo Alto), where she manages academic support initiatives designed to promote college access and college completion among first-generation, low-income students.  Ninety-percent of College Track students are accepted to college, and the college graduation rate is 2.5 times higher than the national average.  Prior to joining College Track, Patrice worked for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, for whom she designed and implemented college access and career readiness curricula.   Patrice recently married and now lives in Oakland, where she sings at local jam sessions in her free time.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: History/Social Studies.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH : Determine the central idea or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH : Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH : Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, nothing discrepancies among sources.

2. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?
© Jim Richardson/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. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?
There may be another city with more nicknames, but depending on who you ask, Chicago, Illinois has at least two dozen. Most of us know it as the “Windy City” or “Second City” – the latter a dig from New York. But we like some of the many other antiquated and modern slang names for the Jewel of the Midwest. Some call it the Big Onion, Paris on the Prairie, or, if you swing like Frank Sinatra, you’ll want to call it My Kind of Town.
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 do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?1
Web Search
What innovations were accomplished in Chicago? 2
Video Search
Find a video that discusses Chicago’s early history, and its development. What challenges did Chicago encounter? 3
Thinking
How do you think the outcomes of those encounters connected to other events in U.S. history? 4
Find a newspaper opinion piece written about the city’s national significance. In what ways does this opinion contrast with or match other information you read in this search?
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 do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?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 do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?1
Web Search
What innovations were accomplished in Chicago? 2
Video Search
Find a video that discusses Chicago’s early history, and its development. What challenges did Chicago encounter? 3
Thinking
How do you think the outcomes of those encounters connected to other events in U.S. history? 4
Find a newspaper opinion piece written about the city’s national significance. In what ways does this opinion contrast with or match other information you read in this search?
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 do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?1
Web Search
What innovations were accomplished in Chicago?
(Possible query: “innovations, Chicago history”)
Sources:
Encyclopedia of Chicago:
One notable innovation is transportation. Railroads, bridges and waterway systems were significant to Chicago’s transportation system, and they saw significant development in Chicago’s early history. Chicago is favorably located midway between the coasts, which made it important to several commercial industries that relied on trade.

8. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?2
Web Search
Find a primary or secondary source that discusses Chicago’s early history, and its development. What challenges did Chicago encounter?
(Possible query: “Chicago history, challenges”)
Secondary Source: Encyclopedia of Chicago:
According to this encyclopedia chapter, one of the challenges Chicago encountered in its early history concerned workers’ satisfaction, and the eruption of labor and union strikes that developed as a result. One example of this is the Haymarket Square Riot, a demonstration that became violent in May of This event reflected similar concerns of workers in other parts of the nation, and became an inspiration for the fight for the protection of workers’ rights; an international holiday is celebrated in its honor (“May Day”).

9. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?3
Video Search
Find a video about the city’s national significance. What does this video convey about Chicago’s impact on the rest of the U.S.?
(Possible queries: “newspaper opinion, Chicago national significance” or “Chicago national significance, newspaper editorial”)
YouTube Video (Chicago History – Episode 1: Pullman):
This video introduces a Chicago businessman, George Pullman, who is credited with advancements in railroad transportation that began in Chicago and were spread elsewhere, including the use of railways for commercial transportation. Pullman’s mistreatment of his workers led to a violent strike that attracted national attention.

10. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?4
Thinking
In what ways does this opinion contrast with or match other information you read in this search?
While several of the points I discovered earlier in this search were reiterated in this video, new information was added:
Advancements in transportation helped advance the U.S. Economy.
Railroad innovation in Chicago were shared across the nation, and improved both trade and commerical transportation.
The mistreatment of workers in industries, such as transportation, led to a labor movement that included strikes.

11. What do you think might be Chicago’s impact on national history?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.