Suitcases

In this post, I’m going to share how I have adapted Wright and Bolitho’s activity (2007:44), Suitcases.

Before we travel, we pack a bag or suitcase. We take some things with us and we leave some extra space for what we may bring back. Souvenirs, gifts, etc.

Similarly, when we attend a session/course, we don’t take an ’empty suitcase’. We bring our experience, our beliefs, our expectations, as well as our doubts. These need to be explored before a session/course, they need to be the starting point of new learning. This is something that Wright and Bolitho remind us in pretty much every chapter of their great book, Trainer Development.

The writers have shared an icebreaker activity which they call suitcases.

Here’s the procedure:

• Take a piece of paper.
• Draw a suitacase.
• Top left corner: write down your expectations of the course .
• Top right corner: write down any problems/worries you’ve brought with you (these could be personal, not just related to the session.)
• Bottom left corner: write any resources you have brought. Their examples are chewing gum, umbrella, some ideas.
• Bottom right corner: write anything you have brought with you to occupy you in your free time.
• At the end of the session, re-examine the contents of your suitcase and re-draw it.

Here’s how I have slightly adapted it.

• Take a piece of paper.
• Draw a suitacase.
• Top left corner: write down one topic-related idea you’ve brought with you. For example, if the session is about classroom management, write down one CM strategy you use.
• Top right corner: write one (or more) expectations you have of this session.
• Bottom left corner: write any problems/worries related to the topic, e.g. classroom management.
• Leave bottom right corner blank for now!
• Share/discuss in pairs.

At the end of the session

• Tick any expectations that were met and any problems that were dealt with.
• bottom right corner: write down your key takeaways.
• Share/discuss in pairs.

I love the suitcase metaphor for helping trainees articulate what they are bringing to the session or course, as well as what they are taking away.

For online sessions, I use this jamboard, feel free to make your own copy here. You need to be signed in to your Google account.

This work by Rachel Tsateri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Trainer Development

This book is brilliant and I believe anyone involved in teacher education would benefit from reading it. It’s also quite affordable; about 16 EUR on amazon or 8-10 for a used copy. Jim Fuller has written a detailed review which you can read here.

You might also want to read…

• this TEFL Zone post, where I share 5 more ideas for end-of-session reflection.
• this post I’ve written for the IATEFL TTEd SIG, again based on an activity from the same book.

References

Wright, T. and Bolitho, R. (2010). Trainer development. La Vergne, Tenn: Lulu.