Reflection 3

1. What did you enjoy about it?
If I had the opportunity to join the class (since I was not around), I'm sure I would enjoy being to various cultural points and carrying out the activities relevant to each point, like doing the poem Old House At Ang Siang Hill when we are there. What is meaningful is that this is a Literature learning journey, not a typical history field trip lesson, so the activities are catered towards making learning Literature meaningful and interesting. When we think of culture, we should not just think of history, but the style and flavour of it, which is what literature is able to bring out.

2. What interdisciplinary possibilities are there?
I feel that learning journeys are more catered towards the humanities side, so perhaps history or geography might match nicely with this learning journey for Literature. On the other hand, it should not be too difficult to include mathematics or science elements in this learning journey, so it will have to depend on the activities decided, and how the places we go to and the activities designed can be appropriately linked to them.

3. What did I learn from it?
 I guess the most important thing I can learn is that a learning journey need not necessarily be like a history field trip. Had I joined the class, it would be the first field trip that is not organized by the History or Social Studies department. Also, from the videos recorded of my classmates, I infer that secondary school students would be camera shy, and also shy in general about doing activities in public, so this has to be taken into consideration when planning activities. It would be easier if students are made to perform in larger groups, if there is any need of them to do so, and/or be recorded by the camera. This is because by gathering students in larger groups to perform, such as reciting a poem, they will have more courage as a group and be less shy.


4. How can you design and use learning journeys for effective learning in and out of your classrooms?
 Learning journeys and field trips are often cast aside until after exams or nearing the holiday period, so for effective learning, they have to be integrated as part of the Unit Plan and Scheme of Work. This is in order for them to be implemented as something that is not additional, but necessary for students' learning progress in the curriculum. After all, "the Literature field trip... presupposes something of a paradigm shift from the kinds of critical approaches to literary criticism that had hitherto informed Literature-in-English as taught in Singapore secondary schools" (Whitehead and Tang 206), and many may find it difficult to accept that this field trip/ learning journey can benefit students' learning in Literature, what with the traditional form of teaching- via content-heavy, exam-focused approach. With that, proper forms of assessments also have to be designed to ensure that we are able to evaluate our students even as they are participating in the learning journey, instead of doing academic work in the classroom. 
Activities that are designed for the students should also be relevant to helping students learn more about literature and/or the Singaporean culture, even though they are to be conducted outdoors. A problem I foresee is that these activities for the learning journey that are designed by teachers are extremely fun and interesting, but lack relevance to the essential and sub-inquiry questions in the unit plan or overall scheme of work. Therefore, the activities planned have to address the 2 main questions of "What do we want to teach our students?" and "How can this be taught through the learning journey?".

Velvet