“Ms D are we going out today?”, were the first words out of my ELL middle school students as they anxiously took their seats.  You could be fooled by their enthusiasm as students who were into their lesson.  As you will see further down the passage, most wanted to escape the idea of being confined to the classroom.  

Seated and waiting anxiously for my response,  I broke the silence by asking them to get out their project’s assignment paper. After going over a few things they needed to have and directions that they needed to follow,  we all filed out the door and started off for Carrier, where they would carry out their interviews.  

The ELL students and I have been working on myths, legends and folktales. To assess their understanding,  I assigned a three-part project on the subject.  The third part of their project, required that they interview an African outside of the RFIS community,  hence the field trip to Carrier.  

Right when we stepped through the school gates, the two boys started complaining and asked us to go back, while the girl asked for more information on the task. One could tell who was going to work hard on the project,  and I was grateful that they were all getting separate grades. One boy had a solid reason for wanting to turn back. We were on a dusty road, and he was quite allergic to dust particles. The other however,  didn’t want to do any hard work. 

The challenging part of the field trip however, wasn’t their whining, but getting people who were willing to talk. Some young mothers and older women said they didn’t know their cultures and it was really saddening. We had people who were afraid of us  and spoke in the language not knowing that their bodily language could be read. They didn’t know who we were and were not willing to give information on their cultures. We got two stories down and will get one more tomorrow.  

The overall experience was a little sad, because all we really wanted information on folktales from their different traditions and the significance to them.

Through the experience,  the students were able to understand that sometimes things do not go the way you expect,  but in any case,  one needs to exercise humility and thank the persons for their time. It’s really no use creating enmity when  we could be friends.