Hmong Communities in California

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Hmong Communities in California

A few of the hundreds of participants at the 10th-annual Hmong New Year Celebration in downtown Chico, California, pose for their portrait taken by Carol M. Highsmith.

Author: Matt O’Donnell
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 90-110 Minutes
Area of Study: Community Building, Home-making, and Empowerment 

Compelling Question
  •  How do Hmong people build and sustain community and belonging? 
Lesson Questions
  • Where did Hmong refugees build communities in California?
  • Why did these communities become Hmong population centers?
  • What are some community organizations and businesses in these population centers?
Lesson Objective

  • Through learning about the early settlement of Hmong communities in California and Central Valley, students will gain an understanding of highly populated locations/demographics and examples of civic engagement, economies, and cultural festivities of the Hmong communities.

Lesson Background

Pfeifer (2024) shares that based on the 2020 census data, there are 335,919 Hmong in the United States. California has been and is still home to the largest population of Hmong, at 107,458, while Minnesota comes in at 95,094 Hmong people, and Wisconsin ranked third, with 62,331 Hmong residing there. In California, six major cities have more than 3,000 plus Hmong people residing in them; among them, Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton, Merced, Clovis, and Elk Grove.

Through primary sources, students will learn about where and why Hmong people settled in California and the challenges they faced. Students will be broken into four subgroups to research and produce a presentation of various topics: location/demographics, community organizations/civic engagement, economics, and cultural festivities.

Image Citation: GPA Photo Archive. (2015, May 4). Hmong spirit [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/iip-photo-archive/16750283203

Supply
  • Access to laptop device
Readings
  • Early Hmong Resettlement 
  • Hmong Populations of California 
  • Civic Engagement in California
Handout
  1. Opener
    1. Have students list five things they think of when they hear the word: California.
    2. Have students share their list with a peer. 
    3. Solicit student responses and have a class discussion, noting common words/ideas.
    4. Review lesson objectives and lesson background with students. Inform them that today’s lesson will focus on Hmong communities in California.

 

  1. Interaction with First Source 
    1. Teacher will distribute copies of the reading "Early Hmong Resettlement" Exhibit Panel Hmongstory 40 Project created to share American sponsor's experience with Hmong families they sponsored in the early 1980's (https://ucdavis.box.com/s/q3slwsoabrd56jgyagviqce2j7b0zy2b). 
    2. Students will read the article and take notes on the following questions:
      1. Where did Hmong people resettle in California?
      2. What hardships did they face in California? 
    3. Have a whole class discussion to check for understanding. It might be helpful if teachers display a map of the common resettlement areas in California (highlighting: Fresno, Sacramento, and Merced). This will be a great transition to the next part of the lesson as well.

 

  1. Shared Learning: Group Activity
    1. The teacher will divide the class into three groups. Each group will be given a city to research about the Hmong community there.
      1. Group 1 will be assigned Fresno
      2. Group 2 will be assigned Sacramento
      3. Group 3 will be assigned Merced
    2. Each group will then be subdivided into teams of two or three to research the following topics:
      1. Subgroup 1 Location and Demographics Resource: “Hmong Populations of California” (Displays Hmong populations demographics in California in the years of 1990, 2000, 2007 and 2010) https://ucdavis.box.com/s/p44a7nvi3udwx6324wl612qhd4pmz8du  
        1. Where in California is this located?
        2. What is the total population?
        3. What is the Hmong population of the city?
        4. What is the age breakdown of the Hmong population?
        5. What are the Hmong population trends in the city?
      2. Subgroup 2 Community Organizations and Civic Engagement Resource: “Civic Engagement in California” (Displays major political office victories: Paul Lo, first superior court judge, Blong Xiong, first Fresno City Councilman, Steve Ly, first Mayor and Noah Lor, first Merced City Councilman of Hmong descent) https://ucdavis.box.com/s/9d08k1wpnnue6k10tifoeg0lublr5b1n 
        1. What are some of the Hmong community organizations in the city?
        2. How do they serve the community? 
        3. Who are some Hmong civic leaders?
      3. Subgroup 3 Economics - Businesses and Industries
        1. What are some of the Hmong-owned businesses in the city?
        2. What industries does the Hmong population work in? Farming?
        3. Who were some of the leaders in the various industries?
      4. Subgroup 4 Cultural Events/Traditions and Festivals 
        1. What are the large Hmong cultural events in the city?
        2. Describe when these events take place
        3. What happens at these events?
    3. For every large group (Groups one through three), there will be a shared slides presentation. (In other words, there should only be three slides for the whole class, but everyone is contributing on behalf of their subgroup to the specific slide deck for their region: Fresno, Sacramento, or Merced). The students in each subgroup will create one slide to add to their group slide deck. The subgroup slide will include their topic as the title and any of the relevant additional information below for their assigned category:
      1. A map of California showing where there city is located
      2. Demographics of the city and Hmong population
      3. Descriptions of large community organizations
      4. Photos and descriptions of Hmong businesses
      5. Description of industries Hmong citizens work in
      6. Photos and descriptions of Hmong cultural events or festivals
    4. It is strongly recommended that subgroups assign roles to maximize student participation. Roles can be divided by assigning students particular questions or topics to contribute to the slide deck.
    5. Provide each student with the Handout to support note-taking:  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/l72sf45dcvs0lbu4x56r7d1ka637y2hz 

 

  1. Slide Presentations
    1. Each group will present their slides by region: Fresno, Sacramento, or Merced.  
    2. For efficiency, students can do presentation stations as an alternative to whole-class presentations.
      1. For presentation stations, have one member from each group/subgroup stand with their laptop device to share, while the rest of the group shuffles to other stations to learn and gather notes. Then, members can switch off presenting. 
    3. Alternatively, subgroups can use a recording application (such as Screencastify) to narrate their one slide and attach it to their slide. Then, all slide deck links can be posted for all students to have viewing access. Independently, students will go through each slide and listen to the pre-recorded notes from the group creators. 

 

  1. Student Reflection: When each group is finished presenting, students will record or write a three to four-sentence description that reflects and summarizes their takeaways and new learnings of Hmong communities in California.

Students will create and present information about Hmong communities and influences in one of the following regions: Fresno, Sacramento, or Merced. Students’ presentation will cover the location/demographics, community organizations/civic engagement, economics, and cultural festivities of each region.

  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Vary the social demands required for learning or performance, the perceived level of support and protection and the requirements for public display and evaluation 

 

  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Provide templates, graphic organizers, concept maps to support note-taking

 

  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Provide alternatives in the requirements for rate, timing, speed, and range of motor action required to interact with instructional materials, physical manipulatives, and technologies
    • Encourage and support opportunities for peer interactions and supports (e.g., peer-tutors)

 

For additional ideas to support your students, check out the UDL Guidelines at CAST (2018)  http://udlguidelines.cast.org.

  • Emerging: Consider the following method to support with emerging students:
    • Speaking: Assign roles in group work 
      • Students assume specific roles to actively engage in, help lead, and contribute to collaborative discussions. 

 

  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Speaking: Repeat and expand student responses in a collaborative dialogue 
      • In partner and group discussions, students use conversation moves to extend academic talk. “Conversation moves” help students add to or challenge what a partner says, question, clarify, paraphrase, support thinking with examples, synthesize conversation points, etc.

 

  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Speaking: Structure conversations requiring various points of view with graphic organizers 

 

For additional guidance around scaffolding for multilingual learners, please consult the following resources:

  1. Students can research about Hmong communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

 

  1. Students can compare and contrast the Hmong communities in various states, countries, and throughout the world.

Britt, K. 2020c, May 11. English learner toolkit of strategies. California County Superintendents.  https://cacountysupts.org/english-learner-toolkit-of-strategies/

California Department of Education & English Learner Support Division. 2012. California English Language Development standards (Electronic Edition) kindergarten through grade 12 (F. Ong & J. McLean, Eds.). California Department of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/eldstndspublication14.pdf

California Educators Together. (n.d.). ELA / ELD framework. https://www.caeducatorstogether.org/resources/6537/ela-eld-framework

CAST. 2018. The UDL guidelines. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Pfeifer, M. (2024). Hmong population trends in the 2020 U.S. census. Hmong Studies Journal, 26(1), 1–12.  https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/uploads/4/5/8/7/4587788/pfeifer_hsj_26__1_.pdf 

San Diego County Office of Education. (n.d.). Providing appropriate scaffolding.  https://www.sdcoe.net/educators/multilingual-education-and-global-achievement/oracy-toolkit/providing-appropriate-scaffolding#scaffolding

Thao, K. S., Thao, M. C., & Moua, Y. K. 2015. Early Hmong resettlement. California Phase, Hmongstory 40, Fresno, CA.  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/q3slwsoabrd56jgyagviqce2j7b0zy2b 

Tulare County Office of Education. (n.d.). Strategies for ELD. https://commoncore.tcoe.org/Content/Public/doc/Alpha-CollectionofELDStrategies.pdf 

Vang, S. A., & Yang, L. 2015. Civic engagement in California. California Phase. Hmongstory 40, Fresno, CA.   https://ucdavis.box.com/s/9d08k1wpnnue6k10tifoeg0lublr5b1n 

Yang, L. 2015. Hmong population of California. Txhawb Hmong California Directory. Hmongstory 40, Fresno, CA.  https://irp.cdn-website.com/b2871686/files/uploaded/Txhawb_CA_PopulationStats.pdf 

Model Curriculum

Hmong History and Cultural Studies

Standard(s)

HSS 11.11 HSS 11.11.1 RI.11-12.7 W.11-12.6

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12