This learning journey served to give me new insights and clarity for some of the poems explored today. For instance, the poem “Old house at Ang Siang Hill” comes alive when I finally have an image to accompany the “unusual house”. Walking around Ang Siang Street and seeing international fashion designers like “Fred Perry” gave new meaning to the poem for me. I begin to understand the persona’s grievances over how the traditional houses have lost their historical significance and memories attached to them. The “Fred Perry” retail store I saw did not at all match the traditional Ang Siang Hill look and it truly started look “unusual” for me as well. An interesting activity that we could have partaken in to make the poem more relevant for us would have been to actually go into these shop houses and ask them shop owners if they actually understood anything about the rich history of the building they are currently working in. This was an activity we explored later on at Singapore River and I felt it also bared relevance here. The downside would be that if we ever think about using it if we conduct learning journeys of our own, we would have to keep running away for security guards and be putting our students out there as public nuisance. Getting students to approach strangers is also not very advisable as not many would oblige especially in the CBD area. It would be better advised if a teacher were to follow the group of students in asking the questions in a friendly and polite fashion ensuring that they do not cause any inconvenience.
Starting out at the URA building help me to contextualize the next few activities today .Being directed to look out for things about the conservation of the historical sites set the tone for the lesson and I immediately looked at places like Ang Siang Hill as “conserved” areas. Thus, the main theme to be explored was made known to me at the start and I knew I would be investigating how development impacts a Singaporean life.
“Change Alley” is a poem that allows us into the sounds and sights that reflect the change in the particular area. As such, I could see students forming soundscapes and sketching out pictures of different images formed from the different stanzas of the poem. The best part is that they can juxtapose their creations to what they see in the alley currently. This allows them to see the change more vividly. Letting them know that poem was written a few years before this also helps them compare the persona’s perspectives with their own and they can dialogue if they agree with him and why he feels the way that he does. Being there myself, I noticed a brand new Change Alley, one that I could not see from how the persona described it. I was glad that despite being at one location, I actually saw two different places through this activity.
The choice of location for the reciting of “Urban Jungle” really allowed for the claustrophobic feeling to come about for all of us and made us feel more like the “ants” looking up to the skyscrapers. I noticed that from where we stood, the sky was barely visible. This gives the buildings a more intimidating feel and also allows us to position from the persona’s perspective. It would be great to see the poem from the building’s perspective by getting us on (though it is difficult) the higher floors of one of the buildings which is a position from which we can see the insignificance of the common people through the eyes of the towering building. One of the activities that can be used here would be to get students to role-play the perspective of an office worker in Raffles place and try to get them thinking about what motivates the worker and how long she/he works as well as how much free time he/she might have. Once again, students can interview people around the vicinity of Raffles Place under supervision of the teachers. This allows them a better understanding as to what workers in this buildings do and they can then effectively debate if these buildings are “consuming” them and not allowing them to “breathe”. Thus, it allows a more informed perspective as well.
The exploration of “Singapore River” by Lee Tzu Pheng allowed us to tap into the perspectives of the people walking around the river itself. Of course, as I mentioned earlier even though this task was useful in helping students shape a better understanding of the poem if it is well under control. The poem itself uses the metaphor of an old lady getting a new heart to explain the redevelopment of the Singapore river. Students, however, may not see the persona’s point of view as they do not have much memories to draw upon about the river in the past. Students can be told to bring an item from home that they have kept despite it being of very little value (something that may not necessarily be of use but is kept due to Nostalgia). Students who have such items can then present why they find the particular object valuable like in a “show and tell” and try to “sell” the object to the class in a sort of “pasar malam” role play. They can then approach the Singapore river and, provided with an old picture of the river try to sell the idea of “undeveloping” the river to what it was in the past. They can be allowed to use tourist guides/ landmark boards available near the river to do this. This allows students to dig out the possible historical knowledge and attempt to find significance in keeping things of the past. They can then read the poem and try to understand the persona’s point of view. This allows students to research and understand how the persona better and find meaning in the tone and mood of the poem while the pictures and sights of the river allow them to understand why the operation was as major as a “heart” transplant.
I find the idea of a Literature learning journey very intriguing as it promotes experiential learning to a point where students can immerse themselves within the poem and make meaning from it from what they see rather than what they hear and read. This works well for visual learners and also allows a fun way to explore Literature. The use of role-play, debates art and soundscapes are just some of the many ways we can also get students to strengthen this experience and get them more involved in their own learning. For me personally, a lot of things became clearer through this journey and I could see a lot of things in front of me that made reading the poem a lot easier.
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