Accompanying slides for this lesson may be found here:  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/qtxfb1xq50vjudfdg36hjur7h6no8e50. 

LESSON OPENER (Day 1 - 45–50 minutes)

1. Write Compelling Questions, Supporting Questions, and Lesson Objectives on the board. Read it out loud with students.
   1. Ask: Imagine being forced to flee your home to find safety from a life-threatening danger, how would you feel/react? What would give you hope (in a new place/country) to flee your home?
   2. Follow with: This is similar to what refugees around the world have experienced.
2. Have a couple volunteers share their thoughts on the question: What does the term “diaspora” mean? 
3. Show the image of Hmong Diaspora from the book The Hmong Journey: Hmong Txoj Kev Taug by Ger Thao (https://ucdavis.box.com/s/0kn5wixys4y5igm2w5jgb8vhtbii9y5x) and have them analyze what is happening. Have a few students share their analyses.
   1. Say: “Diaspora: dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland fleeing violence, terror, torture, and war” (Vang & Vang, 2023).
   2. (Teachers are encouraged to use the Library of Congress Teacher’s Guide: Analyzing Photographs & Prints to guide students in analyzing (Observe, Reflect, Question) various sources  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/iq3w9ma1ho6uij0naf80esgomqp7yiui.) 

INTERACTION WITH FIRST SOURCE

The primary resources are websites on “History of the Hmong Diaspora,” a short storytelling film titled “Hmong Story Cloth” by Ger Thao, and an article on voices of Hmong American students on their diaspora.

1. Say: “The Hmong American diaspora can be categorized into three distinctive life stages: life in Laos, life in Thailand, and life in the U.S.” (Lor, 2018, 2). It is important to also know the origin in China. You will be broken into three different groups to learn more about each of the stages.
   1. Break the students into three groups. Have them go to the URL below. Assign each group to a section of Hmong Diaspora, the Vietnam War, Laos and Thailand from Facts and Details (https://factsanddetails.com/asian/cat66/sub417/item2741.html):  
      1. Group 1: Laos
      2. Group 2: The Secret War and Refugees in Thailand
      3. Group 3: United States
2. Have students review their section and decide on key points. Give each group a poster and markers to create a group poster of the key learnings. Hang the posters around the classroom. 
   1. Key points can include: Where is the country? Who lived there? What was daily life like there? What significant events occurred there? (Teacher can also incorporate other key points they want students to address in their posters.)
   2. Note: For students of various reading levels, utilize a text leveler, such as Diffit (https://beta.diffit.me/#topic), to level text and identify vocabulary to pre-teach.
   3. Give students time to peruse posters from other groups to gather information.

INTERACTION WITH SECOND SOURCE

1. Show the short film “Hmong Story Cloth” http://olelo.granicus.com/player/clip/82185 (18:36 minutes) by Ger Thao. Have students listen for places where Hmong refugees settled after the Vietnam War.
   1. Ask: After watching the short film, ask “Where did Hmong refugees settle after being displaced?”
2. Think-Pair-Share: Have students share with a partner places they heard from the short film. Have students share out loud.
   1. Teacher Says: Since the end of the Vietnam War, Hmong have settled in the United States, Canada, Australia, France, and even in Argentina and mountainous areas of Surinam. According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: In the 1990s overseas population figures were estimated at 15,000 for France, 1,800 for Australia, 2,000 for French Guyana, 1,200 for Canada, 250 in Argentina, 92 in Germany, and 186,310 in the United States (Tapp & Dalpino, 2009). 
   2. Teacher Says: Resettled Hmong have sought to regroup in areas of better economic opportunity and to join larger groups of Hmong. In the early 1990s, half the Australian Hmong population moved to North Queensland to farm bananas. By 2003, all 150 Hmong settled in New Zealand had joined the Australian Hmong. From 1981 to 1983, 20,000 Hmong arrived in the Central Valley of California, and some 20,000 moved again in 1998 from California to Minnesota (Tapp & Dalpino, 2009).

INTERACTION WITH THIRD SOURCE (Day 2 - 45-50 minutes)

1. Have students read the article “Voices of the Hmong American Students on their Diaspora” by Pao Lo (https://ucdavis.box.com/s/3huica1rswccm3tp0ylg0xd334urmv5l) with a partner and jot down what they learned about the experiences of Hmong refugees focusing on the questions posed by the article. (Have students focus on pages 7–9.)

   Note: For students of various reading levels, utilize a text leveler, such as Diffit https://beta.diffit.me/#topic, to level text and identify vocabulary to pre-teach.

   1. How do refugees come to understand, interpret, and make meaning of their Hmong American diaspora? 
   2. What hopes and dreams did Hmong refugees have of leaving Laos and Thailand to other parts of the world?
   3. What challenges did Hmong people face as they adjusted to life in diasporic locations? 

CULTURAL PRODUCTION (Day 3 - 45-50 minutes)

1. Based on the learnings from the articles and resources, have students create an Accordion Book about their interpretation of Hmong diasporic experience. (See directions below for for creating an “Accordion Book.”)
   • Part I: Folding the Pages
     • Fold your paper in half.
     • Fold your paper in half, again to make four rectangles.
     • Now, fold in half, one more time, to make eight rectangles.
     • Cut along the middle and fold up to the second to last rectangle (do not cut all the way).
     • Fold the crease between sections four and eight and then fold up the remaining sections in a zigzag to create the accordion shape of the book.
   • Part II: Making & Attaching the Front & Back Covers
     • In this part of the lesson students are going to decorate and make a cover for their inquiry journal using designs or images that make them think of the Hmong diasporic experience. They can choose whatever color they would like, or they may choose watercolor paper if they plan to paint on the cover. They can make their own design because each person has their own ideas and images. So, no two journals will look the same. They can use color pencils, collage or watercolor to add imagery and designs to their cover. Have them take a moment to think about what images they would like. What will they put on your front cover? What will they put on your back cover? Have them turn to a partner and tell them some ideas they have for the cover. Hand out some scrap paper that students can use to sketch out ideas for their cover before they start working on their actual covers.
     • The paper for the cover should be a little larger than the cardboard. Center the cardboard on the paper. You can mark the corners of the cardboard on the paper and cut off the corners.
     • Use a glue stick to coat the cover paper with glue. Make sure to coat the flaps along the edge with glue.
     • Press the cardboard onto the cover paper, folding over the flaps to stick them to the cardboard. Spread glue on the back of the cardboard, and then press the cover onto the folded black pages. Repeat this process for the back cover.
2. Rationale for Accordion Book: The Accordion Book project gives students the chance to focus on a specific set of vocabulary that is important to them and to share their linguistic ‘funds of knowledge’ with others. What are some of their favorite words/phrases and why? Image and text work together in this project to convey meaning, and this project can allow students to explore a range of artistic media and techniques.
   • There are a few ways that these books can be used to showcase the languages found in your classroom and the broader community:
     1. For students who speak a language other than English at home, ask them to think of words in their home language that hold particular personal meaning. These could be words that are connected to family traditions or stories or other important aspects of their home lives.
     2. Students can communicate the meaning of the word by simply pairing the written word with a picture. 
     3. Or students can include a short description in English that helps to elaborate on the meaning of the word or explain why the word is significant to them.
3. Give students time to brainstorm the key terms/phrases that will go on each page and the image that portrays the meaning of the word. Be sure to provide them with different art supplies. Give students Studio Time to complete their Accordion Books.
4. Teachers can provide the following alternative options of creating an equivalent Accordion Book: Collage, Digital Book, Infographic, Storyboard, or Written Poem

CONCLUSIVE DIALOGUE

1. Table-Top Exhibition: Have students display their Accordion Books (or alternative assessment) on their desks for a Table-Top Exhibition. This provides an enlightening and satisfying conclusion to the artistic process for students. Table-top exhibitions require little preparation and can take place in under 10 minutes. A table-top exhibition allows students to share their work with their classmates and to learn about their classmates as both people and artists. In the case of this project, the table-top exhibition creates a space where students can share aspects of their interpretations/key learnings of the Hmong diasporic experience with their peers and teacher, supporting student’s understanding.