I have covered a wide range of topics in my time as an ESL/bilingual teacher in a diverse middle school, but this past spring I realized I was not addressing the needs of my Hmong students. Their identities were not reflected in my teaching. I also realized that, although many Hmong students attend our school, very few people understood much about their home lives. It was at that point that I decided to take a leap of faith and teach a quarter-long unit about Hmong history and culture.
I had no idea how to start or what resources I would use, but I trusted that my students would help guide the way. I built my own background knowledge on the topic, wrote a rationale for the unit, typed up some essential questions, aligned learning targets with academic English-language development standards, and away I went.
The most important step was sharing my overview with my eighth-grade Hmong students and asking them if they felt comfortable with me teaching this unit. I had spent the past two years building relationships with these students and knew they would be honest with me. I explained that I was hoping they would help me develop a unit that went beyond “food, festivals and family.” As soon as I had their blessing to continue, I asked them for input about what I should include—and avoid—in a unit about Hmong history and culture.
As I tracked down resources, I continued to check in with my Hmong student "advisory board." I previewed all materials ahead of time and got my students' approval before introducing the materials in class. I’d give a synopsis of the material, perhaps show them a quick video clip, and explain how I thought it addressed a topic they had identified as important. They would give me feedback on the resource, sometimes identifying a theme I had overlooked.
By the end of the unit, I had found a way to blend realistic fiction, nonfiction, video resources and structured conversation (through circle discussion) to deepen student understanding of Hmong history and culture. I watched our Hmong students eagerly lead discussions, answer and ask deep questions and write profound reflections of their learning. The tone in our classroom became almost familial as students found cross-cultural similarities that they never knew existed; this led to increased English language development for all students. My students all wrote essays about their interpretations of the "American identity." Everyone learned to read and take notes on academic texts, respond to literature by making connections and asking questions, and contrast fiction versus nonfiction texts. When I gave the assignment to make a documentary about our school, many students chose to investigate diversity in our building.
All in all, the Hmong unit was a success! My Hmong students, previously hesitant to publicly express their opinions or engage in animated dialogue, became leaders in our classroom. The Hmong girls bantered with the Hmong boys about traditional gender roles in their families and expressed their desire to maintain their culture while going on to higher education. I heard students teaching each other Hmong and Spanish. I watched friendships blossom as students—who used to self-segregate based on ethnicity or gender—formed inclusive groups for their final documentary project. I enjoyed sharing their finished documentaries with our school staff, many of whom congratulated the students on a job well done.
I am committed to refining this inclusive unit-building process over time; I hope to extend it beyond my own classroom and collaborate with other educators to integrate these themes across the disciplines. A key element to enhancing this type of instruction, I found, was asking the Hmong student “advisory board” to help build the unit. Relying on their voices to guide my instruction enhanced my multicultural teaching and the cultural proficiency of all of us in the classroom.
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