Day 1

• Land Acknowledgement - Introduction
  • Looking at the Indigenous Land map, acknowledge the Indigenous land(s) in which your learning community is situated using this resource https://native-land.ca/. 
  • Connecting the Land Acknowledgement with the current lesson, teachers can provide a discussion on how Land is integral to culture and language. 
    • Ask questions like this: 
      • How do you think people being forced from their homeland impact people, their culture, and their language?
• HMoob Story Cloth - Activity 1
  • See/Think/Wonder 
    • Display the “Story Cloth Cross Mekong” image https://ucdavis.box.com/s/kixrjqtb3tkvfk4g1ij4r43xe358jgp4 (Story Cloth telling the story of Hmong crossing the Mekong and life in the Thailand Refugee Camps from Hmongstory Legacy Collection) and “Hmong Story Legacy Story Cloth Animation” video (2:00 minutes)  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/70d5b31voynqxd5ubln2nne6k1kachqj (Story Cloths Images depicting Life in War in Laos, fleeing Laos, life in Thailand refugee camp and immigrating to America. Custom animation by the Hmongstory Legacy Team). 
    • Show students the HMoob story cloth - allow students to view the photo up close
      • Ask students to share out loud what they SEE
      • Ask students to share out loud what they THINK 
      • Ask students to share out loud what they WONDER
    • Prompt students with questions like these:
      • What do you think is happening?
      • Who are these people? How do you know?
      • Where are they going? And why?
    • Write down student’s responses
      • Record student responses on three different big poster papers 
• Refugee Narratives - Activity 2
  • Start the second activity with the following questions:
    • "What stories or experiences can you share about the Hmong history?," "How did your family get to the US?," and "What countries did they come from?"
  • Print the “The Day We Knew It Wasn’t Safe To Stay: My Story of The Shooting at Hien Huep Bridge.” (https://ucdavis.box.com/s/j2d3tvmsnw46pwml5hczbs3sr5b7ovk6) for students to read. (Context: Hmongstory 40 Museum Exhibit Panel: Nenick Vu writes about the first hand experience of his mother Kaying Vang's journey out of Laos traveling with Hmong refugees after May 1975 and her eyewitness account of the shooting massacre at Hin Heup bridge.)
  • Place students into groups of three.
    • Allow time for students to make notes on their learning and discovery.
    • Students will discuss this story in their small groups. 
  • Allow students to go back and observe the HMoob story cloth again. 
    • Have them share with their group what they have observed.
      • What does the story cloth depict about migration patterns ? 
      • What story did the one in the narrative show? 
      • Do students see any connections in the story cloth to their own experiences?
  • In a large group discussion, each group shares what they read and their observations of the HMoob story cloth and the narratives they read about. 
    • Prompt question: What are the differences between the story from the magazine and the story cloth? 
• Knowing your own migration/refugee narratives - Take home 
  • For a take-home assignment, students will be asked to go back home and learn about their own family migration/refugee stories. 
    • Students are asked to record/document their narratives and come back the following day to share their narratives with their small group.
  • Teachers should be mindful of various family dynamics, and provide exceptions for students, allowing them to learn about family migration/refugee stories also from a community member or friend.

Day 2 

• Cultural Production / Lesson Assessment
  • Option 1: Have students create a drawn story cloth of their family migration onto a piece of cloth.
    • Students can draw using fabric markers. 
    • Bring up how HMoob story cloth depicts stories without using writing.
    • Have students share their family migration story cloth with the class.
  • Option 2: Students can conduct a mini interview and apply excerpts from the recorded discussion to create a podcast.
    • Students can choose to create a written, visual, or audio summary based on this conversation.
    • Teachers can access guide to teaching podcasting from NPR https://www.npr.org/2018/11/15/662116901/teaching-podcaSting-a-curriculum-guide-for-educators.
  • `Alternatively, students can conduct a migration story project where they watch a video about someone’s experience and then create a written, visual, or audio summary based on this conversation. 
    • Here’s a collection of short films for teachers to preview to have students watch from Hmong Museum: “Unforgotten: An intergenerational project with Hmong Veterans”  https://hmongmuseummn.org/collection/unforgotten/. 
• Group Sharing / Closure
  • In their small groups, students are encouraged to share their family migration/refugee narratives with their peers. 
    • Questions/Prompts for small groups: 
      • How are their narratives different/similar from each other?
      • Compare their own narratives with the HMoob refugee narratives.