The purpose of this trip to Vietnam is to create a teaching unit for Indiana middle school teachers. More specifically the teaching unit will be for seventh graders and focus on the daily life of a 14 year old Vietnamese girl in rural Vietnam. The product will be a DVD with footage from several geographic areas in Vietnam (urban as well as rural), an accompanying book with teaching strategies and expanded references, and assessment materials for teachers and students. The DVD will be created by Ball State Students and edited by Ball State Faculty.
The curriculum guide takes an anthropological perspective that emphasizes the socio-cultural dimension of life in Vietnam. The unit will include material on the geographic, historic, economic, and cultural facets of Vietnam, as these correspond to Indiana’s academic standards for Grade Seven Social Studies. The learning unit will focus on the modern face of Vietnam starting with the inception of the Doi Moi or era of “New Thinking”, a time period covering the last 20 years.
Assessment will include a two-part assessment. An initial survey will be mailed along with the classroom learning unit to teaching partners. It will include an instructor evaluation and a student evaluation. A follow-up assessment survey will be mailed to instructors who have used the unit and agree to further evaluation.
