Teaching With Folk Stories Of The Hmong

Teach students about Hmong culture, build appreciation of diversity, and extend learning across the curriculum with engaging activities based on Hmong folktales and traditions. After a fascinating overview of the history and customs of the Hmong, Dia shares her experience of emigrating from Vietnam to the U.S. The book also offers a profusion of lively activities and project ideas, covering themes of Farming and Food, Stories and Storytelling, Writing and Illustrating Stories, Hmong Folk Arts, and Customs. Students will enjoy learning about Hmong traditions such as their musical instruments, the beautiful Pa Ndau story cloths, and more. Many projects relate directly to Hmong folktales, making this a wonderful companion to Folk Stories of the Hmong.

The Hmong, one of the fastest growing ethnic origin populations in the United States, has should be interesting for students, scholars, service professionals, and the general public. This bibliography is fully annotated and includes full reference information and descriptive summaries for 610 Hmong-related works.

Allow students to step back in time to experience the thoughts, feelings, dilemmas, and actions of people from history. For each history topic, Miller suggests two titles-one for use with the entire class and one for use with small reading groups. Summaries of the books, author information, activities, and topics for discussion are supplemented with vocabulary lists and ideas for research topics and further reading. This integrated approach makes history meaningful to students and helps them retain historical details and facts.

Here are more than 60 tales that exemplify, support, and promote the strong values and character traits that we wish to instill in our youth today. They also support the character education that is being mandated in state after state throughout the country. Grouped into 12 sections based on specific values, such as love, perserverance, fairness, and cooperation (with a separate chapter on dealing with bullies), these tales have been passed down through the ages in diverse cultures and traditions from all over the world—from Japan and India to Greece, Scotland, Africa, and the Americas. There are folktales, fables, Zen Buddhist tales, stories from the Judeo Christian Bible—even true historic tales. At the end of each section, educator and storyteller Norma Livo offers activity ideas and suggestions for discussions pertinent to specific stories and values. In addition, there is an appendix of general activity ideas that can be used in character education.

Of an estimated twelve million ethnic Hmong in the world, more than 160,000 live in the United States today, most of them refugees of the Vietnam War and the civil war in Laos. Their numbers make them one of the largest recent immigrant groups in our nation. Today, significant Hmong populations can be found in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, and Colorado, and St. Paul boasts the largest concentration of Hmong residents of any city in the world. In this groundbreaking anthology, first-and second-generation Hmong Americans--the first to write creatively in English--share their perspectives on being Hmong in America. In stories, poetry, essays, and drama, these writers address the common challenges of immigrants adapting to a new homeland: preserving ethnic identity and traditions, assimilating to and battling with the dominant culture, negotiating generational conflicts exacerbated by the clash of cultures, and developing new identities in multiracial America. Many pieces examine Hmong history and culture and the authors' experiences as Americans. Others comment on issues significant to the community: the role of women in a traditionally patriarchal culture, the effects of violence and abuse, the stories of Hmong military action in Laos during the Vietnam War. These writers don't pretend to provide a single story of the Hmong; instead, a multitude of voices emerge, some wrapped up in the past, others looking toward the future, where the notion of "Hmong American" continues to evolve. In her introduction, editor Mai Neng Moua describes her bewilderment when she realized that anthologies of Asian American literature rarely contained even one selection by a Hmong American. In 1994, she launched a Hmong literary journal, Paj Ntaub Voice, and in the first issue asked her readers "Where are the Hmong American voices?" Now this collection--containing selections from the journal as well as new submissions--offers a chorus of voices from a vibrant and creative community of Hmong American writers from across the United States.

Experience the extraordinary potential that stories hold-the power to heal, calm, and rejuvenate. This magical collection of more than 40 tales from around the world brims with wise words that illustrate many mysterious and sometimes simple ways to wellness and happiness. Through introductions, comments, and discussion starters, Livo provides guidance for reading and reflecting on each tale. The stories are organized into four main areas: healing the self, healing relationships, healing the community, and healing the Earth. In addition to an extensive bibliography, Livo offers a treasure trove of traditional proverbs and old-time herblore. An absolutely wonderful reading experience and resource for educators, parents, students, librarians, folklorists, storytellers, medical professionals, therapists, and anyone interested in folktales and healing. All Levels.

This first-ever encyclopedia of the Midwest seeks to embrace this large and diverse area, to give it voice, and help define its distinctive character. Organized by topic, it encourages readers to reflect upon the region as a whole. Each section moves from the general to the specific, covering broad themes in longer introductory essays, filling in the details in the shorter entries that follow. There are portraits of each of the region's twelve states, followed by entries on society and culture, community and social life, economy and technology, and public life. The book offers a wealth of information about the region's surprising ethnic diversity -- a vast array of foods, languages, styles, religions, and customs -- plus well-informed essays on the region's history, culture and values, and conflicts. A site of ideas and innovations, reforms and revivals, and social and physical extremes, the Midwest emerges as a place of great complexity, signal importance, and continual fascination.