Day 1 Family Clan Structure (50–55 minutes) 

Goals: 

• Students will understand the significance of clans to the Hmong culture and social life. 
• Students will be able to identify the common 18 clans, terminology, and roles of family in the clan structure. 

Step 1 - Lesson Opener:

• Ask: “What is a family?” Allow students who raised their hands to share their definition and thoughts. 
  • Define: Family as a group of people who love, care, and support each other. They may or may not live in the same house. 
• Ask: “What is a clan?” Allow students who raised their hands to share their definition and thoughts. 
  • Define: Clan are families that have the same last name.
• Say: Hmong people are very group-oriented. Every member plays an important role in the group. The individual always thinks about the interest of the group first. A Hmong person belongs to a family, the family belongs to a clan, and the clan belongs to the Hmong people. In English, Hmong people will often utilize the term ‘we’ when referring to their family, clan, or identity as a people. In Hmong, they will usually say peb tsev neeg (our family), peb lub xeem (our clan), or peb Hmoob (our Hmong people). The family is the basic social unit in the traditional Hmong society. A household may vary in size from a couple to more than 20 people consisting of extended family made up of many generations.

Step 2 - Interacting with the text: Life in Laos: Village Life and Structure (Article edited by Robert Cooper) 

• Link: https://ucdavis.box.com/s/8yak5tvv6cw0hyi02zi60qdz6z5tgf5d (Make a copy for each student or create a link students can click on in their laptops.)
• First Read - Teacher reads aloud the article but instructs students to follow along with their fingers on the text. Teachers can also have students engage in popcorn/choral/drop in read. 
  • Teachers should go over the following keywords: extended families, Yang, Xiong, deities, commemoration, ancestral worship, and patrilineal.  
  • Ask if there are any additional words or phrases that need defining, the teacher will write words on the board with the meaning.  
• Second Read - Ask students to read the article silently to themselves a second time. 
  • Students should take notes on the following: What are key ideas from this article? Have students write down key ideas they have learned from the text in their notebooks or virtual notes.

Step 3 - Gather information of Hmong Clan Structure

• Have students read “Family/Clan Structure” provided by the Stanford website on Ethnogeriatrics https://geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/hmong/introduction/family.html. 
• Have students take notes from reading through and analyzing the information on the website. Tell them they will be answering basic information on the Hmong Clan Structure and Practices. 
• The Handout (page 1), “Teacher Notes on Family/Clan Structures,” from Stanford Medicine Ethnogeriatrics (https://ucdavis.box.com/s/iengno0ctktaakjxtsf5ucen3o1fw6yt) can also be made accessible for additional notes and resources.

Step 4 - Group Discussion

• Based on the information given, ask students to talk to each other about what they have learned with regards to Hmong Clan structures. Have them answer the questions below:
  1. What is a clan?  
  2. How is the Hmong community structured?
  3. How does someone join a clan?
  4. How many clans are there?
  5. Can clan members marry each other? Why or why not?
  6. What does the clan structure show about the Hmong belief systems with regards to gender roles?
  7. How is your family structured? Do you have any similarities or differences with the Hmong Clan structure? 

Day 2 Hmong Social Structure  (50–55 minutes)

Goals: 

• Students will learn about factors that shape people’s lives and their identities, such as the social structure of patriarchy (patrilocality/patrilineality) and complexities of gender roles. 
• Students will learn about the traditional (binary) gender roles within the Hmong culture. 
• Students will discuss the tension and inequities that have been created in Hmong communities due to the clashing of traditional and modern cultures of Hmong parents and their children, Hmong men and their wives or girlfriends, and how this has helped shape Hmong American identity. 

Step 5 - Analysis of Gender Roles in the Hmong Community, to what extent are they staying the same or changing? 

• Tell students “Today we are going to analyze gender roles in the Hmong community - what wonderings do you have about this topic?” Collect wonderings and questions from students and add them to a list.  
• Pose the following question: From learning about the Hmong Clan structure, what do you think are the traditional gender roles practiced for centuries in the Hmong community? Why?
  • Have students pair-share with a partner and then to the class.
• Teacher reads “Gender Roles” (see Handout page 2) with choral words with students, using the same strategy as Step 2. 
• Students read with a partner: Article on the Ethnomed website on Hmong, have students read the section on “Gender Roles” with a peer. Have students annotate unfamiliar words.
  • Link: https://ethnomed.org/culture/hmong/#:~:text=Traditionally%20the%20Hmong%20are%20a,children%20through%20birth%20or%20adoption
• Students read independently: Article “Gender Inequality in the Hmong Community.” Have students annotate unfamiliar words. 
  • Link: https://kangshuehthao.weebly.com/hmong-and-gender.html
• Return to the list of questions created by you and your students. Add some level three questions (inference): What does this show about the Hmong community? How would you describe gender roles in your family? Is it a good thing that women are becoming more empowered? Why or why not? What are the benefits of the Hmong clan structure?
  • These questions can be answered verbally, visually, or in writing.

Step 6 - Fishbowl Discussion

• Introduce students to the Fishbowl Discussion activity. Students can prepare for the discussion by having their own responses ready for the Lesson Questions. They can utilize their notes during the discussion to reference text and readings. Additionally, have each student prepare one or two questions they would like to contribute to the discussion. 
• Discussion Setup: Tell students to get into a fishbowl formation (inner circle of students who will be talking and an outer circle of students who will be observing). Number students one through three.  
  • One of the numbers will be in the inner circle and will be talking and discussing answers to the questions while the outside circle (two of the numbers) will take notes and then they will rotate. 
• You can start by facilitating and then choose a facilitator to ask a question and then call on the others in the inner circle.
  • Each student should be provided with potential sentence stems, or this can be displayed on the screen. 
    • Sentence stems can vary from: How to agree/disagree, ask for clarification, invite peers to share their thoughts, or reference textual evidence.
• After three rotations in which everyone has had a chance to talk and take notes, have a whole class discussion on the questions.
  • As students are in the outer circle listening to the inner circle conversation, have them note down new learnings and new wonderings. 
  • If a teacher allows a student to opt-out of the fishbowl discussion for valid reasons, they can have students submit comprehensive written or visual notes as credit.

Step 7 - Assessment / Evaluation

• Have students fill out an exit ticket in which they reflect on their learning, connect to their own families and think about their views on gender roles. Below are possible questions for your exit ticket, have students choose at least three questions to respond to:
  • What are some key takeaways you learned about Hmong clan structure?  
  • How would you compare this to the structure in your community and or family?  
  • What did you learn about the gender roles in the Hmong community?  
  • What are your views about gender roles?  
• Alternatively, students can share their responses verbally with a small group of three to four peers as well.