Early Vietnamese History until Colonization

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Early Vietnamese History until Colonization

Ruins from the southern Vietnamese kingdom of Champa

Author: Jacob Lê 
Grades: 9-10

Suggested Amount of Time: 40-50 Minutes
Area of Study: Social & Political Transformations in Twentieth Century Vietnam

Compelling Question

  • How did French colonialism, political ideologies and geopolitics shape the internal divisions of Vietnam?

Lesson Questions 
  • What are the major events that led to the formation of Vietnam as a country prior to French colonization? 
  • What types of stories are told about Vietnam, Vietnamese refugees, and Vietnamese Americans in American media?
  • How has Vietnamese history, culture, and society developed throughout history?
Lesson Objective

Students will examine the early stages of Vietnam’s history and analyze its development as an empire leading up to colonization by the French by creating a synthesis timeline.

Lesson Background

Vietnam is a country with a rich history that begins far before international attention during the Vietnam War. Vietnam is a nation of diverse ethnic groups, a long dynastic tradition, and history of colonization by the Chinese and French, all of which have contributed to a unique and rich national culture.

The French were motivated to colonize Vietnam during the era of New Imperialism for two main reasons: (1) the desire for raw materials and markets spurred by nineteenth century industrialization, and (2) belief in the embraced civilizing mission or duty of the supposedly superior white races to impose west

ern ideals on non-white peoples, perceived as savages by the white races. This resulted in paternalistic colonial policies that had enduring impacts on Vietnamese society. 

Image Citation: (2023). Alphahistory.com. https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/champaruins.jpg

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 historical significance is constructed. That is, events, people, and developments meet the criteria for historical significance only when they are shown to occupy a meaningful place in a narrative.

Readings
  • “17 French Colonial Architecture Sites and Influences in Vietnam”
Handouts
  1. Warm-Up (five minutes) 
    1. Prompt students: Identify at least two major life events that you feel had the most significant impact on you, and explain what made them so significant.
    2. Have students share with a partner, then ask for volunteers to share with the class. 

 

  1. Lesson Introduction (5–10 min)
    1. The teacher introduces the lesson questions to students in order to frame the goals of the lesson.
    2. The teacher introduces the lesson assessment to students so that they know the task that is expected of them.
    3. Pose question to students: What do you already know about the historical context of French influence on Vietnam? 
      1. Allow for students to pair share their thoughts.
    4. After class share out, allow students to browse LocalVietnam website for a “17 French Colonial Architecture Sites and Influences in Vietnam”:  https://localvietnam.com/blog/french-colonial-influences-sights-vietnam/#:~:text=The%20era%20of%20French%20colonial,tasty%20Vietnamese%20cuisine%20and%20coffee. 
      1. Have students share the most interesting fact they learned from this site.

 

  1. Interaction with Sources (15 min) 
    1. Distribute copies of the Timeline handout for each student. 
    2. First Read: Teacher will model reading the first few entries of the timeline. As the class follows along, the teacher should model annotations (highlight or underline)  for the key ideas of that particular event.
    3. Second Read: Teacher will model how to synthesize the event into a condensed description. Details to include (but are not limited to the following): Date, one sentence caption for the event, one to two sentence significance of event (including negative and positive impacts), and a symbol or icon (or visual item) to represent the event.
    4. For the remaining events, students can continue to read with a partner, or independently. They will finish annotating the passages, and synthesizing each event.
      1. Encourage students to avoid long paragraphs and keep details in succinct bullet list format. 
    5. By the end of this, students should have a list of personal notes for each key event.

 

  1. Shared Learning (10 min)
    1. Students will now review their notes and put a star near the top five key events that they feel are most significant and impactful. 
    2. Have students form small groups of three to four to discuss which events they starred as most important. During this discussion, encourage students to justify their selection and provide rationales. Affirm with students that if they wish to change their ranking and selection of most significant events, they are welcome to do so. 
    3. Have a whole-class discussion, and ask students to share their top five. The teacher should track which events are consistently being identified.

 

  1. Cultural Production (15 – 20 min)
    1. Students will now narrow down their selection of five key events, to one that they find most crucial and impactful. 
    2. Students will create a digital or hand-drawn poster of this specific event. The final product should include, but is not limited to, the following details: Date, one sentence caption for event, one to two sentence significance of event (including negative and positive impacts), image(s) to represent the event, how this event contributed to the development of Vietnam as an empire.
      1. Alternatively, students can create an infographic, or storyboard. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative. 

 

  1. Conclusive Dialogue and Sharing (15 min)
    1. Once all students have completed their product, allow for them to share in a “Give One, Get One” discussion activity.
      1. Students can utilize the sentence frames when discussing:
        1. “The most significant event that contributed to the development of Vietnam as an empire was… because..” 
        2. “The event in the year … was most pivotal to the development of Vietnam as an empire because…” 

Students will create a digital or hand-drawn poster of one specific event they find most crucial to the development of Vietnam as an empire. Alternatively, students can create an infographic, or storyboard. 

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

  • Use prompts or scaffolds for visualizing desired outcome.

 

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

  • Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas.
  • Use advanced organizers (e.g., KWL methods, concept maps). 

 

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

  • Use social media and interactive web tools (e.g., discussion forums, chats, web design, annotation tools, storyboards, comic strips, animation presentations). 

 

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: Provide cloze sentences with a word bank
    • 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:

  • 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. Students can compare and contrast this with Vietnam’s development post-1975 French colonization with the development of another nation. 

 

  1. An increased focus on historical skills can be done, having students answer supplemental questions centering on historical thinking skills:
    • What is the significance of ______ event in Vietnam’s political history? 
    • What additional sources could be added to provide a broader, more precise picture of what was happening? 
    • Over the course of this period, what was one thing that changed or stayed the same for the Vietnamese people? 
    • Did the political strife toward the end of the period cause or contribute to French colonization? Why or why not? Do you have enough information to answer this question? What more may be necessary? 
    • What are some perspectives that may be missing from this history?
    • What parallels can you see between this and the world we live in today?

 

  1. Students can utilize this source to examine the cut-off dates set by the United States indicating the timeframe in which refugees no longer qualify as a refugee, and instead are considered asylum seekers. UNHCR. 1995. Flight from Indochina. In The State of the World’s Refugees. https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/3ebf9bad0.pdf 

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 & 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

Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance. Vietnamese American Curriculum Project Committee. 2001. Vietnamese Americans: Lessons in American History : An Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Resource Guide. The Alliance.

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 

Vietnam - A country profile. 2023. Eye on Asia. Retrieved from https://www.eyeonasia.gov.sg/asean-countries/know/overview-of-asean-countries/vietnam-a-country-profile/ 

17 French colonial architecture & influences in Vietnam. 2023, May 30. https://localvietnam.com/blog/french-colonial-influences-sights-vietnam/#:~:text=The%20era%20of%20French%20colonia

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 10.10 RI.9-10.2 W.9-10.9

Grade(s)

Grade 9 Grade 10