Cambodian Refugees: Building Community and Maintaining Cultural Connection

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Cambodian Refugees: Building Community and 
Maintaining Cultural Connection

Aerial view of the tents and latrines set up for the Cambodian evacuees at Camp Pendleton in 1975. (David Kreng Collection)

Author: Kathryn Black
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: Two Class periods - 120 minutes
Area of Study: Community Building and Healing

Compelling Question
  • How did Cambodians build communities to thrive and heal in the United States?
Lesson Question
  •  How did the Cambodian refugees build community in the United States while maintaining their cultural connections? 
Lesson Objective

Students will analyze the experiences of Cambodian refugees in Southern California. Through this lens, students will research and learn about the immigrant experience of those in their own community. 

Lesson Background

In this lesson students will analyze the refugee immigration experience through the lens of Cambodian refugees in Southern California. Students will use prior knowledge to identify and analyze reasons people leave their home country. Students will analyze primary sources including photos and oral histories to learn about the Cambodian refugee experience, adjusting to a new life in the United States, and maintaining language and cultural heritage in a new country. Then students will interview an immigrant in their community to create a primary source oral history video that documents that person’s experience.

Image Citation: Programs, & Programs. (2023a, October 7). Aerial view of Camp Pendleton 1975 - Historical Society of Long Beach. Historical Society of Long Beach - Where History Lives! https://hslb.org/aerial-view-of-camp-pendleton-1975/

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.

Students will explore how United States’ migration policies were tied to military intervention in Cambodia and the impact it had on Cambodia resettlement.

For additional guidance around ethnic studies implementation, refer to the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2022)  https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/esmc.asp.

Supplies
Readings
  • Cambodian-American Dance Class
Photos
  • Camp Pendleton Photos
  • Cambodian Business Photos
  • Learning Cambodian Culture Photos
Videos
  • Sophy Khut - Oral History 
  • Seasons of Migration 
  1. Warm Up 
    1. Pose the following question to students: What are some reasons people immigrate or move to another country?
    2. Have students pair-share with a peer.
    3. Then, have a class discussion and solicit student responses with examples of why people chose to leave their country.

 

  1. Anticipatory Image Set
    1. Begin with the “Overhead View” images.  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/z3pn4rc3hgi691b69t0v33tvebci02cg Show the students the photos in the following order: Overhead View, Camp Pendleton Housing 1, Camp Pendleton Housing 2, Cambodian Children at Camp Pendleton, Clothing distribution, Help Poster. 
    2. Have students discuss the following questions in pairs and then discuss as a class. 
      1. Pair Share: 
        1. What do you notice or wonder about this image? 
        2. What do you think is going on in the image?
    3. Students will guess what they are looking at as the images progress. Continue to show folders until students are able to identify that they are looking at a refugee camp (Cambodian refugees in Camp Pendleton, California).
    4. Show Students the location of Cambodia on a map (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cambodia/@12.1363981,102.7361403,7z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x310787bfd4dc3743:0xe4b7bfe089f41253!8m2!3d12.565679!4d104.990963!16zL20vMDF4Ymd4?entry=ttu) 
    5. Show Students the location of Camp Pendleton, California on a map. (https://www.google.com/maps/search/camp+pendleton/@33.3004008,-117.5410604,36311m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1?entry=ttu)  

 

  1. Introduce Key Vocabulary and Background Information
    1. Define the term refugee: someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.
    2. Give an overview of US Refugee Policies through reading Dr. Sovathana Sokhom’s paper: Refugee Policy Overview https://ucdavis.box.com/s/h5xazdzklurl25tvq9b4hbulfhnxfggu
      1. Ideally, this would be read as a class to help build background together. Then, the class would annotate the paper together and summarize each paragraph or chunk, while highlighting reasons for Cambodian immigration as refugees. 

 

  1. Interaction with the First Source - Sophy Khut - Oral History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PoNCb9mTrs 
    1. Watch beginning at 1:04:23 - ending at 1:15:42
    2. As students watch, have them note the following questions:
      1. How did Sophy Khrut’s family adjust to life in the United States?
      2. What challenges did Sophy face in school in Portland?
      3. How did Sophy react to the bullying she faced at school?
      4. How do you think it would feel to start school as a young child in the United States after immigrating?
    3. Once the clip is done, have a class discussion or pair share answers to the questions.

 

  1. Shared Learning - Community Building in Long Beach
    1. Show students the location of Cambodia Town in Long Beach, California on a map: (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cambodia+Town,+Long+Beach,+CA/@33.7828269,-118.3322009,11z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x80dd316e7e38d9f7:0x34669b431f29b57c!8m2!3d33.7827841!4d-118.1780919!16zL20vMDZzcXo2?entry=ttu) 
    2. Have students work with a partner for the next part of the lesson.
    3. Each partner will select two of the following aspects of community building in Long Beach to research.  Students can use additional resources from the Historical Society of Long Beach to support their research. https://hslb.org/cambodian-american-collection/?v=f24485ae434a
      1. Buddhist Temples and the Community https://ucdavis.box.com/s/5thsi4xhwdp6gpj16ejju1nl4khvqqw4
      2. Cambodian Dance https://hslb.org/wp-content/uploads/Cambodian-American-Collection/Building-Community/Cultural-Reproduction/Dance/Cambodian-Dance-Socialization.pdf?v=f24485ae434a
      3. Business Development https://ucdavis.box.com/s/d69u9jjxbcwi2ebiavfux9nw4crhvfhk
      4. Khmer Education https://ucdavis.box.com/s/jiowkf74oorn82tube1m1wievh9djqfc
    4. Questions for Analysis - Students will complete these questions for two aspects of community building:
      1. How did this aspect of Cambodian community building help connect people in the Cambodian community? 
      2. How did this aspect of Cambodian community building help people maintain their culture in the United States?
      3. Why do you think it is important to people to build community or maintain culture from their home country in this way?
      4. How did the Cambodian refugees build community in the United States while maintaining their cultural connections? 
    5. Once each partner has completed answering the questions for their two aspects of community building, they will share their learnings with each other.
    6. Then, have a whole class discussion for each aspect of community building. 

 

  1. Cultural Production/Assessment: Community Interview
    1. Students will create a four to five minute primary source video interview with someone in their community that immigrated to the United States. 
      1. Adobe Express Video Maker https://www.adobe.com/express/create/video, and Canva https://www.canva.com/education/students/ have free platforms for video creation.
    2. Students will prepare 8–10 questions for their interview that address the following topics:
      1. Country of Origin
      2. Reason for leaving home country
      3. Where did the person live when they first arrived in the United States? 
      4. How did they adjust to life in America? What if any challenges did they face?
      5. What did they do to build community and maintain culture in the United States?
    3. Students prepare their interview questions in class and conduct their  interviews at home or in the community over the next week. 
      1. If the interviewee prefers an alternative mode of recording, students can opt for audio voice recording only and/or no recording, and note taking only. 
    4. Provide opportunities for students to share the interview stories. This can be done through whole class or small group presentations, a Give One, Get One, or posting the links to the projects on a public forum board for all students to access and view.

Students will create a four to five minute primary source video interview with someone in their community that immigrated to the United States. Students will prepare 8-10 questions for their interview that address the following topics: 

  1. Country of Origin 
  2. Why did they move away from their home country? 
  3. Where did the person live when they first arrived in the United States? 
  4. How did they adjust to life in America? What if any challenges did they face? 
  5. What did they do to build community and maintain culture in the United States?

Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:

  • Provide feedback that is frequent, timely, and specific
  • Elevating the frequency of self-reflection and self-reinforcements

 

Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:

  • Highlight how complex terms, expressions, or equations are composed of simpler words or symbols
  • Make connections to previously learned structures

 

Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:

  • Provide scaffolds that can be gradually released with increasing independence and skills (e.g., embedded into digital reading and writing software)
  • Provide guides and checklists for scaffolding goal-setting

 

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:

  • Listening: Model academic language and vocabulary 
    • Apply domain-specific vocabulary and general academic vocabulary in open sentence frames to perform functions, like describing or explaining, that target specific grammatical structures. 

 

Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:

  • Listening: Use cognates to aid comprehension 
    • Students study the forms of words/word structure; draw words and phrases from the text that students will encounter and show them how shifts in word structure (i.e. suffix­ converge to convergent; diverge to divergent) affect meaning.

 

Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:

  • Listening: Extend content vocabulary with multiple examples and non-examples 
    • Students use a Frayer graphic organizer to support understanding of a key word or concept. Place the target word in the center amid four surrounding quadrants to support different facets of word meaning.

 

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

  1. Enrichment Opportunity: Interactive Map 
    1. Students can create an interactive map including the locations mentioned in this lesson. 
      1. Sign in to My Maps. (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/) 
      2. Click Create a new map. 
      3. Go to the top left and click "Untitled map." 
      4. Give your map a name and description. 
      5. Add the following locations mentioned in the lesson: 
        1. Cambodia 
        2. Cambodia Town, Long Beach, California 
        3. Portland, Oregon 
        4. Where the student lives 
        5. The student’s school 
  2. Enrichment Opportunity: Explore modern Cambodian and Cambodian-American Music that ties to the refugee experience. 
    1. Question for discussion: 
      1. How does the song blend traditional and modern culture? 
    2. Music Suggestions: 
      1. VannDa - Time To Rise feat. Master Kong Nay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvje5oblrLw)
        1. Warning: This video includes drinking wine 
      2. Sva Rom Monkiss - Laura Mam and The Like Me's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBVNnBLFHnA) 
        1. Warning: This video includes smoking 
      3. Mech Jung Ha? - Prach Ly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7m7m7cKFQ0)

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

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. 2022. 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

Historical Society of Long Beach. (2023, June 16). Sophy Khut - Oral History [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PoNCb9mTrs

Needham, S., Andes, J., & Rodriguez, B. 2004. Socialization in a Cambodian-American Dance Class. CSU, Dominguez Hills.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sfb9pBRuEOtRziUMkTud01QjUK1QAv2N/view 

Puenta, K. 2011, January 17. Celebrating a Monk. Press Telegram. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UHWBBtu7An-V0idESOQaGXlEPJ77vNBB 

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

Shapiro, J. & Bishop, J. (Producers). 2008. Seasons of Migration [Documentary film]. Vimeo.  https://vimeo.com/501077348?share=copy&fbclid=IwAR0hnDL1BHodKV8s4H6W4lFQjn_ckjlfWNCPFYbZqtjsZRp32TExqOU8rYU

Sokhom, S 2023. US Refugee Policies in Indochina and Cambodian Refugee Experiences. California State University, Dominguez Hills. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P8X1zxdf3GeDxp6x7pK05_g41hZ2X0dp/view 

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

Model Curriculum

Cambodian American Studies

Standard(s)

HSS 11.9.3 HSS 11.11 RI.11-12.7 W.11-12.2

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12