Accompanying slides for this lesson may be found here: https://ucdavis.box.com/s/rc2pce6as8q5fxwnb7t4bgwq24asf83f  

1. Warm-Up (5 minutes)

• Prompt students to think about the nail industry and any personal experiences they have had at a nail salon. Have they ever been to the nail salon? If so, what was that experience like, or what details stood out to them?
• Students can share experiences and noticings with a peer.

2. Making Connections/Building Prior Knowledge (5–10 minutes)

• Display the following terms on the screen for students and ask them to rate their understanding of each term: Entrepreneurship, Niche Stretching, “McNails” and Toxic Trio.
• Define key terms for students and have them record notes: 
  • Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship is the act of starting and running a business, taking on financial risks in the hope of making a profit.
  • Niche Stretching: Broadening customer base (typically via class) and expanding the range of services
  • ”McNails”: Inexpensive, impersonal, and quick nail services; convenient in location and business hours
  • Toxic Trio: Common toxic chemicals found in nail polish (formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate)
• Pose the question to students: What are the benefits and costs (pros and cons) of entrepreneurship?
  • Optional: Ask students to brainstorm businesses that are commonly owned by immigrants. Ask students to consider why many of these businesses are service trades (hair, nails, cuisine, agriculture, cleaning, machinery, textiles, etc).
    • What factors drive this? 
    • What is the gendered nature of these businesses? 
    • Why is not there an equal proportion of men to women in these industries? 

3. Context Building (15 minutes)

• 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. Accompanying slides for this lesson may be found here: https://ucdavis.box.com/s/rc2pce6as8q5fxwnb7t4bgwq24asf83f 

4. Class Discussion: Watch Nailed It (2018) segments (suggested below) https://tubitv.com/movies/629631/nailed-it?start=true&utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed (30 minutes)

• For each of the following segments, be sure to stop after each one to provide opportunities for discussions and shared learnings. The questions can be provided on a worksheet to students or discussed orally.
  • Vietnamese refugees introduction to the nail trade and industry (timestamp 7:53–13:11)
• What is one important main idea about how refugees were introduced to the nail trade and industry?
• Institutional factors have supported Vietnamese people's entrance into the nail industry, en masse (timestamp 23:01–26:46)
  • Identify 2 or more institutional factors and discuss the importance 
• Intersections (and partnerships) of race, class, and gender within the nail industry (timestamp 38:30–42:15)
  • What learnings did you discover about the intersections and partnerships?
• Vietnamese people expansion of the nail industry (timestamp 16:41–21:24)
  • Share an Aha! moment or shocking statistic.

5. Cultural Energizer: Zines (20 minutes)

• Have students create zines (https://blog.flipsnack.com/what-is-a-zine/) focused on one element of Vietnamese participation and influence in the nail salon industry that interested them most. 
  • The final product can be open to a written, visual, or audio narrative. 
• Students may use the zine as an opportunity to incorporate oral histories, familial, and community histories, as well as develop their own questions on how Vietnamese people have challenged marginalization or racism. Zines may also focus on how Vietnamese refugees have shaped attitudes and policies of health and safety, labor, and immigration through the nail salon industry
• Zines should address and respond to the lesson questions: What key factors helped influence the exponential growth of Vietnamese refugees in the nail salon industry? How have Vietnamese refugees transformed the industry?

6. Conclusive Dialogue and Reflection (5–10 minutes) 

• The following questions (Who, What, Why, and How) can be discussed in small groups to wrap up the lesson.
  • Whose history is this?
  • What did we learn?
  • Why is this knowledge important?
  • How does this connect to our current lives?
• Have students present their zines and/or do a classroom museum gallery stroll for students to view zines made by their classmates.
• Optional extension questions: How have Vietnamese refugees overcome oppression, marginalization, and built an interracial solidarity through a nail salon? How can we insert our own family and community histories to reimagine labor and health conditions in the industry?