Accompanying slides for this lesson may be found here:  https://ucdavis.box.com/s/ld11xerq8s2pwl05ull0amms9qznsvzv 

1. Warm-Up (five minutes)
   1. Prompt students: At what point in your life did you feel more independent? Consider the event or moment, and how that helped shape your feeling of independence. 
      1. Have students share with a peer and then solicit student responses to share with the whole class. 
      2. Teacher will then introduce the lesson objectives and lesson questions. 
2. Lesson Introduction (10 minutes)
   1. The teacher will show slides one through three on the lesson presentation.
      1. See “1945–1954: Independence and Competing Visions for Vietnam” for suggested slides text in the handouts section.
   2. The teacher will present a historical review based on the slides of the effects of the end of WWII and Japanese rule in Vietnam.
   3. The teacher will then prompt the students with the following warm-up question in a think-write-pair-share. 
      1. Think-write-pair-share: The teacher will ask the question shown in slide three, give students about two to three minutes to write their response, two to three minutes to discuss with a partner, and two to three minutes for certain pairs to share their responses with the class
      2. Warm-up question options:
         1. What do you think happens now? 
         2. Will the French come back? 
         3. Will Vietnam become independent peacefully or violently? 
         4. Based on previous knowledge of colonialism in Vietnam, what competing visions and ideologies for an independent Vietnamese nation do you think will be in conflict?
3. Historical Background (20 minutes)
   1. The teacher will show slides 4–16 on the presentation.
      1. Recommended for teachers to share the presentation with discussion. Teachers can screencast the presentation so students can pre-watch and re-watch or interact with them independently. Ask students to explain what the content means after each slide.
   2. Students will be given a notetaker with the six discussion questions listed in order. Students’ assignment for this class is to work with pairs or groups in between the presentations to fill out each question, then share some answers with the class.
      1. See handout: “Notetaker: 1945–1954: Independence and Competing Visions for Vietnam”.
   3. The teacher will present a historical review based on the period of 1946–1954 and the creation of two Vietnamese nations.
      1. Teachers will especially focus on how the development of the two nations differ from traditional US history and Vietnam history textbooks. 
      2. The teacher will also emphasize how such connections and narratives about history, especially the narratives of the legitimacy of the Republic of Vietnam, affect the identity of the Vietnamese American community today.
   4. In between every few slides, there will be a discussion question. The teacher will have students get into pairs and groups (Slides 7, 11, 13, 15, 16) to discuss these questions and fill out their answers to the questions in the notetaker based on the discussions. 
      1. Each mini-discussion should take about five minutes to fill out and discuss.
      2. Students should already be taking bullet points under the questions.
         1. Ex: Slides four and five (bullet point notes under question #1), Slides 7-11 (bullet point notes under question #2).
4. Community Collaboration: Debate Activity (30–50 min)
   1. Preparation for Debate Reading and Discussing Claims (10 minutes)
      1. Divide the students into six groups, each containing four to six students.
      2. Teacher will pass out a worksheet with three mainstream claims about the period of 1945–1954 in Vietnam and the perspective of Vietnamese Americans.
      3. See handout worksheet titled “Worksheet: Narratives about the Nation-Building” towards the bottom of lesson plan. 
         1. Groups one, two, and three will represent the mainstream claims (Claims one, two, and three respectively).
         2. Groups four, five, and six will represent the Vietnamese American counter-narratives corresponding to the claims.
      4. Provide each group with the mainstream narrative (claim) and the corresponding Vietnamese American counter-narrative. Give them five minutes to read through and understand both.
      5. Instructions in the worksheet with narratives: The following claims showcase popular historical narratives about the formation of the Vietnamese nation that have been put forth by both US and modern Vietnamese media and educational institutions. Read the claims and, based on the presentation notes, write down the alternative narratives put forth by Vietnamese American refugees.
   2. Instruct each group to prepare a three to four minute skit, which includes the following prompt:
      1. Today, you and your group will be engaging in a debate aimed to critically analyze different perspectives on the formation and governance of Vietnam. The focus will be on contrasting mainstream claims with Vietnamese American narratives. This debate will help deepen your understanding of the complex factors that have shaped Vietnamese history and its interpretation, particularly from a Vietnamese American viewpoint.
         1. Claim 1: The anti-colonial revolution was led and won by Hồ Chí Minh and the Việt Minh, and it was only natural that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam they established, although communist, is the most legitimate government that is representative of the Vietnamese people.
         2. Claim 2: The Republic of Vietnam, established in 1955, is simply a vestige of the French colonial state’s State of Vietnam that had lost even more legitimacy as a nation due to its status of being a puppet state to new American colonial imperialism.
         3. Claim 3: The Geneva Accords in 1954 had promised a referendum in 1956 that would unite Vietnam under one country. Due to American fears of communism and the largely undisputed fact that Hồ Chí Minh would win the election due to his popularity, both Ngô Đình Diệm and the American government decided to interfere in the democratic, self-determination of the Vietnamese people. They canceled the referendum, which led to the long-term division of Vietnam for two decades and a war that engulfed the lives of millions of people.
      2. Each group will spend 20 minutes preparing their arguments. They will use the slides, the claims worksheet, and any extra research to support their claim.
         1. Those representing the mainstream claims will build a case supporting the claim.
         2. Those representing the Vietnamese American counter-narratives will prepare arguments to challenge the mainstream claims.
         3. Both sides should aim to address why their narrative is crucial for understanding Vietnamese history and identity.
      3. An alternative option for the debate can be a philosophical chairs discussion, a four corners discussion activity, or students can be tasked with creating a storyboard to illustrate the various narratives and perspectives. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative.
   3. Debate Session
      1. Pair each claim group with its corresponding counter-narrative group. They will engage in a debate for approximately eight minutes per pair (totaling 24 minutes).
         1. Two minutes for the claim group to present their argument.
         2. Two minutes for the counter-narrative group to present their rebuttal.
         3. One minute for open debate and questions.
   4. Debrief (5 Minutes)
      1. Open classroom discussion or reflection where students can share what they have learned, what surprised them, and any questions they may have.
      2. Teachers should make sure to emphasize the point that narratives of history even before migration to the US shape how ethnic communities, especially the Vietnamese American community, are perceived.