Exploring the Vietnamese Exodus

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Exploring the Vietnamese Exodus

A detail of Tiffany Chung’s “The Vietnam Exodus History Learning Project: the exodus, the camps and the half-lived lives,” 2017, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. CreditJustin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

Author: Tori Phù
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 80-100 Minutes
Area of Study:  Vietnamese Departures and Transit

Compelling Question

  • How did Vietnamese build communities as they attempted to survive and traverse the hardships of life in transit? 

Lesson Questions
  • How did the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) of 1979, under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) impact the experiences of Vietnamese immigration?
  • What were the varied experiences of Vietnamese refugees in their exodus to different parts of Asia?
Lesson Objective

Students will compare and contrast the various refugee camps in Asia (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Macau, Singapore, and Japan) by gathering notes from a variety of sources and sharing their understanding in a medium of choice.

Lesson Background

“After the South Vietnam regime fell to the Communist rule in April 1975, South Vietnamese tried to get out of the country at any cost. Many trekked through dangerous forests to neighboring countries, like Cambodia and Thailand. The majority risked their lives on small, perilous boats heading to the open sea, faced with possible captivity or killed by communist coast guards, confronted storming seas, food and water deprivation, robbery, rape and murder by pirates in order to reach the shores of other South East Asia free countries. Some were able to make it successfully, while other unfortunate hundreds of thousands perished at sea.  They were known as Vietnamese Boat People (Thuyền Nhân Việt Nam).  In 1979, the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) was created under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to permit immigration of Vietnamese to the United States and to other countries.” 

Quoted from: Our Roots. (n.d.). Vietnamese Heritage Museum. Retrieved October 31, 2023, from https://vietnamesemuseum.org/our-roots/

Image Citation: Dobson, J. (2019, April 11). Vietnam, Through the Eyes of Artists - Vietnam Full disclosure. Vietnam Full Disclosure. https://www.vietnamfulldisclosure.org/vietnam-through-the-eyes-of-artists/

Ethnic Studies Theme: This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of power and oppression from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students will consider war, migration and imperialism as contexts shaping citizenship and racialization. Teachers can enhance this lesson by reminding students how life in the refugee camps can highlight the agency and resilience of Vietnamese refugees through multiple systems of oppression, including in Vietnam, the complex immigration/refugee processing process, and later barriers to resettlement in America.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2021) https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp.

 

Historical Thinking Skills: This lesson will facilitate student proficiency in historical significance, one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). Students make personal decisions about what is historically significant, and then consider the criteria they use to make those decisions. Students consider how events, people, or developments have historical significance if they are revealing. That is, they shed light on enduring or emerging issues in history or contemporary life.

Supplies:
  • Access to laptop device 
  • Online map of Asia
  • Vietnamese Heritage Museum “Refugee Camps”
Readings:
  • “East Asian Refugee Admissions Program”
  • “How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis”
  1. Cultural Energizer (five minutes)
    1. Pose the following question to students: Where is home for you? 
      1. Other alternatives of the energizer question: What is a smell, taste, or sound that reminds you of home? What makes a home a home?
    2. Allow students to partner-share, and then share to the whole-class.
    3. Wrap up share outs and preface students on lesson by connecting the energizer question to the lesson content. 
      1. Teachers can share something along the lines of: After the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese individuals had to leave their home against their will. As we go through today’s lesson, please keep in mind the internal feelings that Vietnamese refugees experienced as they were displaced from their homeland, and how best to share their story to the world.
  2. Shared Learning - Background Context (10–15 minutes)
    1. Students should be provided background information from the lesson background and have prior knowledge about the Vietnam War and Vietnamese refugees. 
    2. Teachers can utilize the following website sources to provide students with background context and suggest for students to take notes of key points in regards to the Orderly Departure Program (1979) and events following the Vietnam War.
      1. US Department of State: https://1997-2001.state.gov/global/prm/fs_000118_eap.html 
      2. History.com: https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-refugees 
  3. Interaction with Sources (25–30 minutes)
    1. Provide an overview of the Asian locations that housed a campsite for Vietnamese refugees: Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Macau, Singapore, and Japan.
      1. Teachers can display a map of Asia on-screen for students to see the general geography of the locations listed above in relation to Vietnam.
    2. Describe to students that they will be focusing on one refugee camp and researching the following details (including but not limited to):
      1. Location (distance from Vietnam and location in Asia)
      2. Physical terrain of site
      3. Important numbers (i.e: statistics, number of refugees, dates, and more)
      4. Description of refugee experiences, struggles, emotions
    3. The criteria above should be documented via student constructed notes, or the teacher can provide a graphic organizer. 
    4. Teachers can decide how to divide the eight (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Macau, Singapore, and Japan) locations amongst students. (Options: teacher can allow a specific number of students to sign up for a particular location, or teacher can assign students.) 
    5. Students can utilize the following source to begin their research, and are invited to search up alternative website sources to gather information and learn more about their focus site.
      1. Vietnamese Heritage Museum: https://vietnamesemuseum.org/our-roots/refugee-camps/ 
        1. This website includes the following sources: photos, artifacts, maps, documents, videos, identification cards, stories, and overview descriptions. This website would be a great starting point.  
    6. Allow students to connect with peers who have a similar location to collaborate on research and findings.
  4. Community Collaboration: Give One, Get One (15 minutes)
    1. Students should have a supplemental notetaker to gather information and write details about other campsites that their peers researched.
    2. The class will be participating in a Give One, Get One sharing activity.
      1. Task: Have students move around and find someone that researched a different site to partner with. Each partner gives or shares things from their research list and notes. 
        1. For instance, Partner A shares their responses. Partner B writes the new information on their notes and the camp site location along with Partner A’s first name. When Partner B has received the necessary information, the roles change. 
        2. Learners repeat this process with other peers until they have found a peer from each Asian country on the list. Students do not need to link up with someone with a similar refugee campsite as them.
    3. After students have collected information about the other refugee camps, they should have covered all eight refugee sites.
    4. Prompt students to engage a in a short partner share to discuss the following:
      1. What is something shocking they discovered about one of the refugee sites?
      2. Which country or refugee camp stood out the most to them?
  5. Cultural Production (20–30 minutes)
    1. Based on student interest, have each individual choose one country and its refugee camp to create a final product on. 
      1. Regardless of final product that student chooses to create, the following foci must be represented (directly or abstractly):
        1. Location (distance from Vietnam and location in Asia)
        2. Physical terrain of site
        3. Important numbers (i.e: statistics, number of refugees, dates, and more)
        4. Description of refugee experiences, struggles, emotions
    2. Menu of options for final product (the final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative). 
      1. Mini zine (tiny booklet that provides information) 
        1. See “Read Brightly” website for details on how to create a mini zine: https://www.readbrightly.com/how-to-make-zine/ 
      2. Poem (examples: free verse, sonnet, ode) 
        1. The poem can encompass themes of the Vietnamese refugee experiences, while sharing snippets into their route and life at the refugee camp of focus.
      3. Interactive gallery (digital or non digital)
        1. Students can identify (or hand-illustrate) five images that strongly depict the Vietnamese refugee experiences at the specific refugee camp of focus. 
        2. For each image, students should construct a two to three sentence caption as to the significance and relevance of the photo.
          1. Students may consider using symbolism when choosing images
        3. The interactive gallery can be created on a slide deck, on paper, or other
      4. Diary entry
        1. Students are to take on the persona of a Vietnamese refugee who would have lived at the refugee camp of focus. In a one to two page diary entry, students are to write in a first person point of view what a day in their life would have been like. 
    3. Suggested grading criteria:
      1. Creativity
      2. Organization 
      3. Research guiding points are covered in product
      4. Completeness
    4. Once student projects are complete, conduct a whole class gallery walk for students to speak about and share their final creations.
  6. Reflection (10–15 minutes)
    1. Have students respond to the lesson questions with an exit ticket: What were the varied Vietnamese refugee experiences in their exodus to different parts of Asia? 
      1. Suggested to construct a response with 4 sentences minimum and referencing their notes.

Students will choose one refugee camp in Asia to focus on and create a final product of their choice (mini zine, poem, interactive gallery, or diary entry) to present their understanding of the experiences at that site. 

  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    •  Design activities so that learning outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and reflect a purpose that is clear to the participants.  
  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the learners’ experience and prior knowledge. 
      • Teacher can provide word bank or definitions for the following terms: Vietnam War, refugee, refugee camp, Orderly Departure Program of 1979.
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Provide graphic organizers and templates for data collection and organizing information. 

 

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:
    • Reading: Pair students to read one text together  
      • Students turn to their designated partners to discuss prompts posed by the teacher. Partnerships are organized in teams of two.
      • Students read with a partner and concisely summarize text together using critical content vocabulary, but limiting summary to essential words. Begin in pairs of two, but move to partnerships of four for more practice. 
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Reading: Teach skimming for specific information 
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Reading: Use focused questions to guide reading
      • Students use inquiry posing their own questions and wonderings to guide shared research experiences. 

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

  1. Little Saigons in America - Students can research the many Vietnamese American communities that have been developed in the US by Vietnamese refugees in their resettlement experiences. Suggested areas: Little Saigons in Orange County, California; San Jose/Silicon Valley, California; San Diego, California; Houston, Texas; Versailles of New Orleans; Boston’s Fields Corner, Springfield Massachusetts; Honolulu’s Chinatown; Los Angeles Chinatown. Students can create a brochure for one of the listed locations. The travel brochure can highlight businesses, geography, climate, major events, and other data that may attract folks to the Little Saigon area.  
  2. Artifact Show and Tell - Students can identify one physical artifact that best represents their learnings from this lesson. This artifact should be appropriate to bring to school for sharing purposes. Students should prepare a short presentation or description as to why this artifact reflects the experiences of Vietnamese refugees in their exodus. If time does not allow for short presentations, teachers can facilitate a gallery walk in which the artifact is accompanied by the student's explanation on a device or paper. Then, students can move around the room to view each one and read at their own pace. 
  3. Then and Now - Have students watch this Youtube video, "Former Vietnamese boat people return to Bidong Island for the first time in 40 years. | Cover Story" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiWuQRoXwMo). While watching the video, they can make reflections on the past and present.

American Initiative. 2022. Asian American Studies K-12 Framework.  https://asianamericanresearchinitiative.org/asian-american-studies-curriculum-framework/ 

Brightly. 2019, March 15. Brightly. https://www.readbrightly.com/how-to-make-zine/ 

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

California Department of Education. 2021. Ethnic studies model curriculum. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp 

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

Fact Sheet: East Asian Refugee Admissions Program. (n.d.). 1997-2001.State.gov.  https://1997-2001.state.gov/global/prm/fs_000118_eap.html 

Our Roots. (n.d.). Vietnamese Heritage Museum. Retrieved October 31, 2023. https://vietnamesemuseum.org/our-roots/

Roos, D. 2021, September 1. How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis. HISTORY.  https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-refugees 

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

Sexias, P. & Morton, T. 2013. The big six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education.

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

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 11.9 RI.11-12.7 W.11-12.9

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12