The learning journey was
enjoyable because we got to see the street or place mentioned in the poem. It
indeed does support me in understanding the poem more based on the visuals
around me, and being there certainly is an appropriate environment to be
reading the poems! Also, I thought the being chased around by the security
guards at Change Street was pretty amusing. I was telling some of my classmates
how it was the CBD way of making people there look forever busy. The performance
in the open space was really cool too. I noticed quite a few working people
walking pass who wanted to know what was going on but at the same time, act
nonchalant about it. Totally amusing.
From this journey, I learnt many
new things I never knew about Singapore, such as how 12% of Singapore land is
for roads, 20% for military training ground and 2/3 of the total land are used
as water catchment areas. There is also so much of restructuring and change
that happens constantly. There is so much history that I have yet to uncover. Considering
that Singapore is so small, it is indeed impressive to have so many things
going on in this little island. All these information is also certainly
extremely useful for Geography and History, and I can foresee myself teaching Geography
with a Singapore poem (or Literature with some Geog facts on Singapore)! That would
certainly be interesting and would capture my students’ attention.
One thing I noticed was also
carrying out activities on site. This may be a challenge as a class is usually
about 40 students strong, and I may not be able to accommodate all (of their
standing/sitting space) and ensure that everyone pays attention. As such,
choosing appropriate locations where everyone is ALLOWED to stand around is
important, and to ensure that it is a semi enclosed area so that all my
students are able to hear me. Printing out an instruction sheet is also a good
idea to make sure students can keep up.
The use of worksheets is also
important so that students can take down notes they may have. Guiding questions
on the worksheets can also prompt students to think deeper in various issues
that are discussed in the poems. One interesting thing that students can also
incorporate in their learning journey would be to take photographs and create a
photo collage based on the poem. Students can then give a presentation on why
they chose certain pictures and this would also give them the opportunity to
explain their analysis of their poems. This activity can be done in class after
the learning journey.
Overall, I think having a
learning journey is a great idea but one has to be careful that venues, activities,
instructions and worksheets are well-chosen so that there will be less hiccups
on the actual day.
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