Challenges and Hardships of Escaping by Boat

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Challenges and Hardships of Escaping by Boat

"Still Lives," an exhibit of 70 paintings and drawings by 18 Vietnamese, explores the trials and slim joys of daily life in Hong Kong's detention camps, where boat people await word whether they will be given asylum or be forcibly returned to Vietnam. The show came together thanks largely to the efforts of Veronique Saunier, a French public relations consultant who spends time as a volunteer working in the refugee camps. The result is a hauntingly eloquent vision of life in the camps. A scene of people lini

Author: Duyên Tống
Grades: 11-12

Suggested Amount of Time: 60 - 70 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
  • What forms of resilience did Vietnamese refugees develop and express?
  • What are the ways that we can analyze art, literature, poetry, and music to holistically analyze and understand the emotions of Vietnamese refugees?
Lesson Objective

Students will be able to describe the challenges and hardships experienced by the Vietnamese people trying to escape by boat by interacting with a variety of sources in a jigsaw activity and completing a reflection.

Lesson Background

After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, there was an exodus of Vietnamese people. It could be understood that there were three main waves of migration. The first wave took place immediately after the Fall of Saigon and the most traveled route went from Saigon to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines; Anderson Air Force Base, Guam; and ending with Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, California. The second wave started immediately after and ended roughly around the mid-1990s. It consisted of many people escaping by boat. This lesson focuses on the hardships that these people faced while traveling to escape. Through different media such as a poem, song, painting, and graphic illustrations, students will be able to synthesize the information to conclude as to the challenges these refugees faced. It’s important to see refugees not just as survivors but as storytellers and resilient people who live rich and complicated lives. 

Image Citation: Boat People Vietnamese, en cage, by Nguyễn Dai Giang. (n.d.). Calisphere. https://calisphere.org/item/0d8ec311-ee8e-4f0d-b36d-659e56c99e81/

Ethnic Studies Theme

This lesson connects to the ethnic studies theme of community and solidarity from the Asian American Studies Curriculum Framework (Asian American Research Initiative, 2022). Students analyze community resistance and alliances between communities, as well as the complexities within these experiences. Students consider the various ways Vietnamese resistance to imperialism has manifested over time.

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 perspectives, one of Seixas’ historical thinking skills (Seixas & Morton, 2013). To demonstrate the use of evidence to write historical fiction that accurately conveys the beliefs, values, and motivations of historical actors. Students consider how the perspectives of historical actors are best understood by considering their historical context.

Supplies
  • “Refuge” Image by Maya Espiritu
Readings
  • “The Refugee Exodus”, pages four through six
  • “At the Vietnam Center and Archive”
  • “Đêm Chôn Dầu Vượt Biển” (Hiding Diesel at Night for the Boat Escape)
Handouts 
  1. Prior Knowledge Learning Check-in (10 minutes)
    1. Begin with an opener. Some questions you might consider asking:
      1. Who or what is a refugee? What do you already know about the experiences of refugees? Think about the United States or other countries you have studied or from your personal experiences—what are some ways people escape difficult situations? And why do you think they escape? What are some benefits and difficulties of leaving a country? Why?
      2. Give students five to seven minutes to write out their responses. Have students turn to their neighbors and share their answers. Solicit several responses to share with the entire class. Make sure all students have an understanding of the formal definition of refugee. Finally, read the background information before the activities.
  2.  Shared Learning: Jigsaw Activity (30 minutes)
    1. Transition into today’s lesson by letting students know that today they are going to examine different types of media depicting the hardships of the boat people trying to escape. Each source generates different responses and the impacts the escape has on people. 
      1. Teachers can distribute the vocabulary handout for student support. 
    2. Sources:
      1. https://ucdavis.box.com/s/wbsr3agfb3su8zjox981yvlb2xvg02a8 (see section: The Refugee Exodus, pages four through six)
        1. Original source: https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/kits/vac_brief_history.pdf 
      2. “At the Vietnam Center and Archive” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/92717/at-the-vietnam-center-and-archive 
      3. “Refuge” Image by Maya Espiritu https://ucdavis.box.com/s/wkhjq2r76btce9j4nxywn7orukc4py21  
        1. Original source: https://criticalrefugeestudies.com/archives/refuge 
      4. “Đêm Chôn Dầu Vượt Biển” (Hiding Diesel at Night for the Boat Escape) https://tuannyriver.com/2016/04/28/song-of-refugees-5-dem-chon-dau-vuot-bien-hiding-gasoline-at-night-for-the-boat-escape/#more-15138 
    3. Directions for Jigsaw Activity
      1. Have students form five groups with all students who read the background in one group, and one from each source in the other four. 
      2. Explain that these groups will be experts on their assigned case study for this class examination. 
      3. Paper or digital handout for notes suggested to include the following:
        1. Lesson Questions: What forms of resilience did Vietnamese refugees develop and express? What are the ways that we can analyze art, literature, poetry, and music to holistically analyze and understand the emotions of Vietnamese refugees?
        2. Rows: Source titles
        3. Columns:
          1. Observations of sources - Use this space below to jot down your initial impressions of the sources
          2. Analysis - Use this space below to identify some challenges the refugees faced.
          3. Mood - List at least three adjectives per source
          4. Making Connections - What connections can you make to current events or your own experiences?
      4. Have the groups spend 5–10 minutes sharing and discussing their individual responses on which they will complete once they return to their home groups. Some questions you might consider asking students as they examine each source:
        1. What is your first impression of the painting?
        2. What is the artist showing us? 
        3. As we view the painting, what emotions does it trigger? 
        4. What are some illusions the artist has created?
        5. What technique does the artist use to engage us? (perspective)
      5. After groups have had time to share, turn students’ attention to their notetaker. Have them work collectively to complete different parts that they were the experts in.
        1. As students are working, circulate among the groups to check for understanding. Each student should understand the content of their reading and should be able to discuss and fulfill the role of expert as students move into jigsaw groups in the next step. 
      6. Jigsaw the groups so that each new group includes an expert representing each source. 
      7. In each jigsawed group, explain that each expert, in turn, will share what they gathered. As the other students in the group listen to the expert, each fills in their own graphic organizer. 
      8. When the groups have completed the graphic organizer, dissolve the groups and have the discussion as a whole class.
        1. Some possible questions include: How did the escape journey affect the lives of the people on the boat and the people they left behind? What experiences and sentiments do they all seem to share? Whose voices are missing here? What could these people do to solve some of their problems? Are there any solutions? When looked at collectively, what argument about the refugee experience of escaping by boat do the documents allow you to make? What else would you need to know in order to draw a wider conclusion about the impact of escaping by boat? Can you make any connections between any current events to what happened here?
  3. Cultural Production (20 minutes)
    1. Students will choose from one of the following assessment options to reflect on and answer the lesson questions:
      1. Assign students to write a reflection paper answering the question: “Based on your sources, what forms of resilience did Vietnamese refugees develop and express?” If students have a personal connection, they can use that information in their responses. 
      2. Poem: Students will write a poem that reflects on the hardships and resilience of Vietnamese refugees. 
      3. Artwork: Students can create original artwork that reflects on the hardships and resilience of Vietnamese refugees.
  4. Conclusive Dialogue and Critical Circular Exchange (5–10 minutes)
    1. Share-time- Find a partner to share your end-product.
    2. Reflection- Ticket out the Door: How can you connect the experiences of Vietnamese refugees to other historical events, personal stories, or themes of resilience?
    3. Optional Reflection Questions: Who benefited and who was harmed by the events in this narrative? Whose perspective does this narrative represent? Who holds power in this narrative?

Students will choose from one of the following assessment options to reflect on and answer the lesson questions:

  • Assign students to write a reflection paper answering the question: Based on your sources, what forms of resilience did Vietnamese refugees develop and express? If students have a personal connection, they can use that information in their responses. 
  • Poem: Students will write a poem that reflects on the hardships and resilience of Vietnamese refugees. 
  • Artwork: Students can create original artwork that reflects on the hardships and resilience of Vietnamese refugees.
  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Prompt or require learners to explicitly formulate or restate goal 
  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages
  • Action and Expression: Consider the following method to support in presenting their learning in multiple ways:
    • Questions and sentence frames to use for poem and song analysis:
      • The words ___ could make the reader feel __ because…
      • When the speaker says __, I feel __ because.. 
      • The detail “___” is an example of ____ which suggests…

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:
    • Writing: Require vocabulary notebooks with non-linguistic representations or L1 translations 
      • During integrated ELD, teachers may sometimes offer strategic primary language support for EL students who are newcomers or at the earliest level of Emerging proficiency.   
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Writing: Teach signal words (comparison, chronology, cause effect, listing) for academic writing 
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Writing: Require academic writing and the use of target academic 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

 

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

  1. Connecting to Resilience - Students can adopt an alignment with the hardships faced by Vietnamese refugees and highlight the theme of resilience. Using this theme and value, students will consider how resilience has been prevalent in their lives and how it has impacted them. In a short narrative, video reflection, spoken poetry, or class discussion, students will share their experiences of resilience and how it has shaped their trajectory of life. If students are unable to identify a monumental moment in their lives that they have had to be resilient, they can respond to the following prompt instead: “What does resilience mean to you?”
  2. Podcasts - Have students find a podcast episode to listen to from this source: Vietnamese Boat People | Podcast. (n.d.). VietnameseBoatPeople. https://www.vietnameseboatpeople.org/podcast. Accessing the podcast episodes may require free subscription sign up. After students have found an episode to listen to, have students engage in a discussion to share about the individual’s experiences and story. 

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

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

Bui, T. 2017. The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir. Abrams ComicArts.

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

Hoàng, T. 2016, April 28. Song of refugees #5 – Đêm Chôn Dầu Vượt Biển (Hiding Diesel at Night for the Boat Escape) [Blog post]. tuannyriver. https://tuannyriver.com/2016/04/28/song-of-refugees-5-dem-chon-dau-vuot-bien-hiding-gasoline-at-night-for-the-boat-escape/#more-15138 

Phan, H.D. 2017. At the Vietnam Center and Archive. PoetryNow. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/92717/at-the-vietnam-center-and-archive 

Critical Refugee Studies Collective. (n.d.). Refugee Archives Refuge. Criticalrefugeestudies.com. Retrieved October 13, 2023. https://criticalrefugeestudies.com/archives/refuge

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.

Song of refugees #5 – Đêm Chôn Dầu Vượt Biển (Hiding Diesel at Night for the Boat Escape). 2016, April 28. Tuannyriver. https://tuannyriver.com/2016/04/28/song-of-refugees-5-dem-chon-dau-vuot-bien-hiding-gasoline-at-night-for-the-boat-escape/#more-15138 

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

Zhou, M., & Bankston, C. (n.d.). Vietnamese Americans The Experience of Vietnamese Refugee Children in the United States. https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/kits/vac_brief_history.pdf

 

Supplemental Sources

Chris Leaw, “Asia’s New Boat People” - On stateless Rohingyas Leaving Burma and Bangladesh (3)  http://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/burma/lewa.pdf

Vietnamese Boat People | Podcast. (n.d.). VietnameseBoatPeople. https://www.vietnameseboatpeople.org/podcast 

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

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

Grade(s)

Grade 11 Grade 12