More than a Store: Small Businesses in Little Saigons (Elementary)

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More than a Store: Small Businesses in Little Saigons (Elementary)

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Author: Tommy Nguyễn, Tori Phù
Grades: 3-5

Suggested Amount of Time: 80 - 100 Minutes
Area of Study: Vietnamese Resettlement and Community Building

Compelling Question

  • What is Vietnamese America?

Lesson Question
  • How do Vietnamese small businesses reflect identity, culture, and rich experiences in Vietnamese American communities? 
Lesson Objective

Students will analyze and reflect on the complex history, culture, successes and challenges that surround Vietnamese small businesses in Little Saigon through analyzing oral histories and Vietnamese discourse and creating a medium of choice. 

Lesson Background

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees fled to the United States looking for both safety and economic opportunities. As more and more Vietnamese refugees entered the United States, ethnic enclaves began to form across the United States. These Little Saigons grew in areas like Orange County, San Jose, and Northern Virginia. Small businesses were established to provide for the needs of the community. These small businesses were a result of the agency of refugees to provide value and a service to the Vietnamese community. Going beyond the traditional sense and role of a business, Vietnamese small businesses established themselves as cornerstones of the community. They became areas of gathering for festivities and celebration. They also reflected a preservation of family history through the names that families would decide to use for the business.  These businesses faced a range of challenges, yet many still persevered with the support of the community. As many of the first generation store owners grow into retirement age, the challenge of continuing businesses into the second generation remains an important one. 

Image Citation: Chaplin, C. (2018, July 11). Where to eat in Little Saigon, Orange County. Eater. https://www.eater.com/2018/7/11/17555520/california-vietnamese-food-little-saigon-orange-county 

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.

Supplies
  • Access to laptop device
Readings
  • “What is a Small Business?”
  • “Solving the Mystery Behind the Numbers of Your Favorite Pho Restaurants”
Videos
  • “A Place that Carries an Identity”, time stamp 2:35–4:40
  • “Be Yourself”, time stamp 5:58–7:00, 8:17–11:24
  1. Cultural Energizer (5 minutes)
  1. Building Background: Activity about Vietnamese ethnic enclaves and on going beyond the 3Fs (Food, Fashion, Festivities) (10 minutes) 
  • Introduce the idea of ethnic enclaves and the formation of Vietnamese communities across the United States. (Ethnic enclave definition: A geographical area where a particular ethnic group is spatially clustered and socially and economically distinct from the majority group). Teachers should provide examples of local ethnic enclaves within their community and ask students if they have visited those areas before.
  • Discuss why it is important to go beyond the 3Fs in a community. We want to go beyond the 3Fs to encourage a deeper cultural understanding and meaning of the community. We want to address historical inequalities and narrative scarcity and advocate instead for a complex narrative of Little Saigons. In other words, we want to talk more about the stories and history of Little Saigons to make sure everyone's stories are heard and understood, especially those that might not have been told as much before.
    • Source: Calvin F. Meyer & Elizabeth Kelley Rhoades. 2006 Multiculturalism: Beyond Food, Festival, Folklore, and Fashion, Kappa Delta Pi Record, 42:2, 82-87, DOI: 10.1080/00228958.2006.10516439  
  • Engagement activity: What’s behind the name? 
    • Provide students access to the following source: Solving the Mystery Behind the Numbers of Your Favorite Pho Restaurants (https://voiceofoc.org/2019/02/lets-eat-at-pho79-86-45-54/) 
    • The teacher can choose to read the article with the class, or just highlight these quotes:
      • "John Nguyen owns Pho 79 in Garden Grove. “[19]79 is the year I came [to] this country,” he said.
      • "Pho 54 represents the last year Vietnam was separated in two by the North and South before the Vietnam War (1955-1975), according to Bui." 
      • "Bui also says Pho 45 is a symbol of the 1945 famine in North Vietnam during World War II and Japanese occupation."
  • Analyze the reasons behind the names of each restaurant (whole class or with partners)
  • Optional: Think-Pair-Share: What was the main point of the article? What did the images of the store names tell you about the business? What do the numbers mean? 
  1. Interaction with a first source with multiple reads (10 minutes) 
  • Provide students with the quote by Danh Nhứt Quách of Danh’s Pharmacy.
    • Quote: “Local people needed medications, and they might need to send back to Vietnam for their family and relatives. Close to that time I heard Vietnamese people started coming from the refugee camps in the 80s after escaping out of the country by boats (we used to call boat people)...We had to buy land in order for the Vietnamese people, so when they came over they had a community...I had a friend who wanted me to buy land because that time I had some money...I selected Little Sài Gòn because it was close to most Vietnamese doctors, and when I looked it in the map, it was in between freeway 405 and 22, the American people already moved out of that place...there was nothing there. People did not live around that area, only the Á Đông market which was an airfield long ago. Next to that [was] the Asian Village and it was a nursery, plant nursery...The shopping center we had was down to Ward Street...Nguyễn Huệ and Đồng Khánh was completed in 1984. After that [was] done, Vietnamese people started to come over, and at the same time I expanded the business to help many people. I was very happy to do that.” 
    • Source: Oral history of Danh Nhứt Quách, interviewed by Michelle Phạm, May 6, 2012, Viet Stories: The Vietnamese American Oral History Project, University of California, Irvine. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d86b4r/?order=3
  • Think-Pair-Share and have students record responses: What do Vietnamese small businesses reveal about Vietnamese American adaptability and resilience? What are some of the challenges and obstacles Vietnamese small businesses face?
    • Teachers may have to scaffold students with definitions and examples of adaptability and resilience. 
  1. Interaction with second source with multiple reads (15 minutes)
  • Teacher plays the Oral History: Andrew Đỗ (https://youtu.be/toFLH0YY-Sk, 2:35-4:40), Việt Phạm (https://youtu.be/GAzbRIwVfzM, 5:58-7:00, 8:17-11:24) (Time stamps recommended for students to watch). Teachers can decide to listen to one oral history instead of both.
    • Teacher asks students about the first video: What did Andrew Đỗ mean when he said Little Saigon is more than “good eating and good shopping?”
      • Teacher asks students about the second video: What inspired Pham to enter the restaurant industry? What advice did he have for young Vietnamese entrepreneurs? How can small businesses impact the community? 
    • Think-Pair-Share and have students record responses: What do Vietnamese small businesses reveal about Vietnamese American adaptability and resilience? What are some of the challenges and obstacles Vietnamese small businesses face?
  1. Cultural Production (30 minutes)
  • Students are given several options to synthesize and reflect on information in class. The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative. 
    • Imagine you are a member of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. You have been assigned to construct a brochure for Vietnamese small businesses in Little Saigons across the United States. Analyzing names and histories of each business. Research online and choose two to three Vietnamese small businesses and create a description and history of the business along with their impact to the community. 
    • Social media video reel: Create a short clip/video reel of a Vietnamese small business, explaining the history of the business, what they serve, and how they impact the community at large.
  1. Circular Exchange (10–20 minutes)
  • Have students share their mediums and final projects to the class in small groups. 
  • Once students have finished sharing, ask them to reflect back on the lesson question with a peer.

Students will choose from one of the following lesson assessments:

  1. Imagine you are a member of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. You have been assigned to construct a brochure for Vietnamese small businesses in Little Saigons across the United States. Analyzing names and histories of each business. Research online and choose two or three Vietnamese small businesses and create a description and history of the business along with their impact to the community. 
  2. Video Reel: Create a short video of a Vietnamese small business, explaining the history of the business, what they serve, and how they impact the community at large.
  • Engagement: Consider the following method to support with lesson engagement:
    • Use of assessment checklists, scoring rubrics, and multiple examples of annotated student work/performance examples 
  • Representation: Consider the following method to support with multiple means of representation:
    • Anchor instruction by linking to and activating relevant prior knowledge (e.g., using visual imagery, concept anchoring, or concept mastery routines) 
    • 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)  
    • Compose in multiple media such as text, speech, drawing, illustration, comics, storyboards, design, film, music, visual art, sculpture, or video  

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:
    • Listening: Restate/Rephrase and use oral language routines
      • Teacher paraphrases student responses as they explain their thinking in effort to validate content learning and encourage the use of precise language.
  • Expanding: Consider the following method to support with expanding students:
    • Listening: Use cognates to aid comprehension 
      • Students study the forms of words/word structure; draw words and phrases from the text that students will encounter and show them how shifts in word structure (i.e. suffix­ converge to convergent; diverge to divergent) affect meaning.
  • Bridging: Consider the following method to support with bridging students:
    • Listening: Confirm students’ prior knowledge of content topics 
      • With a focus on meaning­-making, students are prompted to think about what they already know in effort to help them learn something new.
      • Students find connections between familiar vocabulary related to content learning, explaining how their words are connected. (Our words are connected/linked/related because __________.)

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

  1. Vietnamese Small Business - If students have the ability to travel to a local Vietnamese business, students can plan a class trip to conduct an interview with the business and record an oral history of the story of the business. Interview questions may include origin history, successes and challenges, recent community engagement, and much more. Businesses can range from retail, food, services or other. Students can also create a social media video, post, or flyer to highlight this small business and help with promoting the business in their communities. 
  2. Maps Platform - Have students consider their local community and the small businesses that are nearby (Vietnamese or belonging to another culture). On Google Maps, have students mark these small businesses with a legend/key for each saved location, as well as notes about the business. Additionally, students can conduct research on the data of the demographics of respective cultures that the small businesses serve. This map can be shared to families as ways of bringing people together. 

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

Currents Newspaper – apsea. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2023, from http://apsea.org/currents-newspaper/

Đỗ, A. 2023 A Place That Carries An Identity [Oral Interview]. Orange County Public Libraries.YouTube. https://youtu.be/toFLH0YY-Sk

Garner, A., 2020. Solving the Mystery Behind the Numbers of Your Favorite Pho Restaurants. Voice of OC. https://voiceofoc.org/2019/02/lets-eat-at-pho79-86-45-54/

Hait, A. 2021, January 19. What is a Small Business? The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/01/what-is-a-small-business.html

Phạm, V. 2023 Be Yourself [Oral Interview]. Orange County Public Libraries. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GAzbRIwVfzM

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 

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project (VAOHP). 2012, May 6. Oral history of Danh Nhứt Quách. UCI Southeast Asian Archive. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d86b4r/?order=3

Supplementary Sources:

ABC10. 2023, May 26. Sacramento’s Little Saigon: How the Vietnamese community is preserving culture [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ReyuxZ9N9o

Arzate, H. 2019. Another home to me: How the next generation of Vietnamese Americans is trying to preserve the Eden Center. DCist. https://dcist.com/story/23/02/20/va-eden-center-vietnamese-americans/ 

Echoes of Little Saigon. 2022. ArcGIS StoryMaps. https://arcg.is/19WzrC0

Frank, A. 1998. Tết festivities at Asian Gardens Mall, Westminster, California. Calisphere. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb02900287/

Meyer C. & Rhoades E. 2006. Multiculturalism: Beyond Food, Festival, Folklore, and Fashion, Kappa Delta Pi Record, 42:2, 82-87. DOI: 10.1080/00228958.2006.10516439

Lê, C.N. 2023. Vietnamese American Entrepreneurship Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2006/01/vietnamese-american-entrepreneurship/

Orange County Register. 2006. Little Saigon’s medicine man. Orange County Register. Accessed: 27 July 2023 https://www.ocregister.com/2006/05/12/little-saigons-medicine-man/

Shah, A. 2021, August 17. Incoming frosh named 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate. The Stanford Daily. https://stanforddaily.com/2021/08/15/incoming-frosh-named-2021-national-youth-poet-laureate/

Shoppers on the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia. 2002, July 1. Calisphere. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt8m3nc2zf/

US Census Bureau. 2022. Survey of Business Owners (2012). US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/business-owners.html

Vân’s Bakery and Pho 54 on the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia. 2002, July 1. Calisphere. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt5m3nb9wd/

Vietnamese Voices from Orange County, CA. 2022. Othering & Belonging Institute. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/vietnamese-voices-orange-county-ca

Model Curriculum

Vietnamese American Experiences

Standard(s)

HSS 3.3 RI.3.2 RI.3.7 W.3.2

Grade(s)

Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5