Subject Areas
Social Studies, World Literature.
Objectives
Lesson 1: Students will gain an understanding of the Vietnamese American refugee experience and demonstrate his or her understanding through an interpretive writing.
Lesson 2: Students will analyze photographs to gain an understanding of the refugee experience of those who escaped by boat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Lesson 3: Students will understand the significance and the impact of the Refugee Act of 1980 by studying the Act as well as portraits of Vietnamese refugees and prepare a persuasive writing on a viewpoint regarding U.S. acceptance of refugees.
Lesson 4: Using a Venn Diagram, students will compare and contrast the Vietnamese lunar new year, Tet, with other celebrations from around the world and determine how Vietnamese Americans maintain their cultural celebrations in the United States.
Lesson 5: Students will critically examine children’s literature used to inform the public about Vietnamese Americans.
Lesson 6: Students will conduct research and examine a contemporary issue in the Vietnamese American community today.
Timeline
This unit will take six sessions to effectively complete, with each session at least 45 minutes long.
Several Lesson Plans include Extension Activities which can be assigned as homework or used as additional classroom sessions.
Following this unit, teachers may teach all of the other units in the Asian American series: Cambodian Americans, Indian Americans, Filipino Americans or select one or two units to focus on particular Asian American subgroups.
Assessments
Lesson 1: Students will produce an interpretive writing to demonstrate new understanding about the refugee experience.
Lesson 2: Students will analyze photos to understand the experiences of the refugees who escaped by boats and produce an analytical writing.
Lesson 3: Students will contribute their “expert” knowledge on Refugee Act of 1980 to the group and support a viewpoint on the U.S. acceptance of refugees through a persuasive writing.
Lesson 4: Students will compare and contrast diverse celebrations and provide examples of how American ethnic culture is or is not infused into the broader mainstream American culture.
Lesson 5: Students will review children’s literature and complete the worksheet to critically examine the text and illustrations for authenticity, bias, stereotypes and clarity.
Lesson 6: Students will complete a research paper on a contemporary issue in the Vietnamese American community today.
Teacher’s Note:
The student writing samples in this unit- interpretive, persuasive, and analytical- may be considered for Entry 1 of the AYA/Social Studies-History. The discussion components in this unit may be considered to fulfill the entries based on video evidence.
All Hand Outs For Vietnamese American History Can Be Found Here