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The Day I Woke Up Different

GRADE LEVEL: 3

SUBJECT: ELA, Social Studies

INTENDED UNIT: Identity & Narrative

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

What are my identities? What makes me proud of my identities, family, and culture?

CENTRAL QUESTIONS/BIG IDEAS:

  • How do race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture (among others) shape our personal identity?

  • How can examining experiences that have shaped our identities further develop our knowledge and love of self?


CONTENT OBJECTIVE:

Knowledge: Students will reflect on how personal experiences, relationships, and histories shape our identities by examining the experiences of Vietnamese American children of refugees.

Skills: Utilizing resistance reads as a means of counter-storytelling and disruption of oppressive narratives.

Habits: Reflection, critical thinking, self love


GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT AREA STANDARDS:

ELA

  • Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

  • Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.

  • Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

  • Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

  • Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

Social Studies

  • 3.3 Students draw from historical and community resources to organize the sequence of local historical events and describe how each period of settlement left its mark on the land.

CA ELD STANDARDS:

  • Exchanging information and ideas with others through oral collaborative discussions on a range of social and academic topics.

  • Listening actively to spoken English in a range of social and academic contexts.

  • Reading closely literary and informational texts and viewing multimedia to determine how meaning is conveyed explicitly and implicitly through language.


IEP/504 ACCOMMODATIONS:

  • All lesson plans will be accommodated with a transcript (for video clips), student facing worksheets, and visual slides ready to be shared and accessed.

  • Feel free to accommodate extra time for any formative assignments and provide scaffolds as needed for differing age groups/needs.

  • Refer to specific accommodations in students’ IEP/504 plans.


INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

  1. Slides (link)

  2. “Talk with Author of The Day I Woke Up Different, Andy A. Nguyen!” Video (link)

  3. “The Day I Woke Up Different by Andy A. Nguyen” Video (link)

  4. Betty Duong Oral History (00:00 >> 04:15)

  5. Viet Thanh Nguyen Oral History (29:09 >> 31:03)

  6. Phương Nam Đoàn & Gyrefunk - The Day I Woke Up Different [Lofi Hip Hop Read-Along Instrumental] Video (link)

  7. Edutopia - Exploring Perceptions About Identity Through Self-Portraits (link), (pdf)


LESSON IMPLEMENTATION SEQUENCE:

Step 1: Land Acknowledgement, Essential Question, & Warmup

Duration: 10 minutes


Implementation:

Lead the class through a land acknowledgement as appropriate to your specific context.

Introduce the essential questions to the class:

  • What are my identities? What makes me proud of my identities, family, and culture?

Play the interview with the author (4 minutes 19:30 - 23:23), and lead the class in a discussion of the Warmup questions:

  • The author (Andy) said that when he was growing up, kids asked him, “What are you?” How do you think it made him feel?

  • Andy talked about wearing a Buddha necklace when he was a kid. He said it made him different. When you feel different, what kinds of feelings might you have?


Resources/Materials:

  • Slides 1-6

  • “Talk with Author of The Day I Woke Up Different, Andy A. Nguyen!” Video


Assessment: Class discussion

Step 2:  Vocabulary

Duration: 5 minutes


Have students read/write the vocabulary words and the definitions. Then, have students draw an example related to the words.

  • Pause to acknowledge the following: Not everyone has an immigration story. For example, many African Americans do not know where exactly their enslaved African ancestors’ histories. This is because their names, languages, and histories were taken away from them when they were enslaved and forced to come to the U.S. Many families were also separated.

  • Other examples that may help students understand this concept include:

    • Indigenous communities having their histories erased and taken from them due to settler-colonialism.

    • Adopted folks not knowing their birth families’ histories.


Resources/Materials: Slide 7-8


Assessment: N/A

Step 3: Read Aloud & AAPI Perspectives Interview Clips

Duration: 20 minutes


Play the read aloud video (13 minutes), and stop to check for students’ understanding throughout the read aloud as necessary.

Play the AAPI Perspectives Interview Clips (6 minutes). Places to pause to clarify and check for students’ understanding may include:

  • Betty Duong

    • What does it mean to be a “translator” for your family?

    • What are feelings of “tension,” “angst,” and “conflict?”

  • Viet Thanh Nguyen

    • What does it mean for there to be “conformity” in a community? Why does Viet call himself a “nonconformist?”

    • Is there only one correct way to be Vietnamese?


Resources/Materials:

  • Slides 9-13

  • The Day I Woke Up Different by Andy A. Nguyen Video

  • Betty Duong Oral History

  • Viet Thanh Nguyen Oral History


Assessment: N/A

Step 4: Discussion & Reflections

Duration: 25 minutes


Lead students through the following discussion questions:

  • Before Anh met Quyền, what kinds of experiences did he have in school? If you saw what happened Anh, what would you do/say about it?

  • What does Quyền say to Anh to help him to feel proud of their culture?

  • At the end of the story, what do you think the words “the best of all sides” means?

  • What did you learn about Betty’s experience being a child of Vietnamese refugee parents?

  • What did you learn about Viet’s experience being a child of Vietnamese refugee parents?

  • What similarities or differences do you see between Anh, Betty, and Viet?

Students will write a story or poem, draw a picture, or create a piece of artwork that answers the questions below. While students work, play the accompanying lofi instrumental to The Day I Woke Up Different by Phương Nam Đoàn & Gyrefunk.

  • What are my identities?

  • What makes me proud of my identities, family, and culture?


Resources/Materials:

  • Phương Nam Đoàn & Gyrefunk - The Day I Woke Up Different [Lofi Hip Hop Read-Along Instrumental] Video

  • Edutopia: Exploring Perceptions About Identity Through Self-Portraits (Shana V. White)


Assessment: Narrative writing, poem, drawing, or artwork