Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 1, Session 1: Me and My Assets | Page 10 of 128
with. When you are the speaker, choose one of the situations we have listed on the flip chart – NOT
something that is a real situation for you.
Note: Caution the participants that you are not asking them to solve a real problem that the speaker might be having. This
is not supposed to be therapy! Speakers should choose a situation that is NOT like their own. They are pretending that they
need to talk so the listener can have practice using good listening skills.
“When you are the listener, try to use as many of the spoken and unspoken listening skills as you can.
Feel free to use the handout and the notes on the flip charts to help you.”
- While people work with their partner, move around and listen in to get a sense of how things are
going. Make a mental note of the listening skills you see participants using.
- After a few minutes, stop people and engage them in a short discussion. Say:
“Everyone will have a chance to be both the speaker and the listener, but for now let’s pause before you
switch roles with your partner. I’d like all the people who were the speakers to meet together at one
end of the learning space and all the people who were the listeners to meet at the opposite end.”
- Give participants a chance to move to their designated place then ask the separate groups to talk
among their own group about the question you give them. For the speakers, ask them:
On a sheet of flip chart paper, make a list of the best things the listeners did to make you feel like you were
really heard.
For the listeners, ask them:
What listening skills do you think you used most successfully?
Add any examples of listening skills that you observed – without identifying which person
demonstrated them.
Note: This type of discussion, separate mini discussions between speakers and listeners, is designed to minimize any
identification of what specific individuals did as listeners. The intention is to focus attention on what can be learned from
the activity rather than how well specific individuals performed.
- Ask participants to return to their original partners, switch roles, and begin another session of listening
practice.
- After a few minutes, again divide into separate groups of speakers and listeners and repeat the
discussion process outlined above.
- Have people return to their partners and encourage them to practice more until everyone has had a
chance to be the listener at least two times.
- Bring the full group back together. Then, lead a discussion using some of these questions:
How difficult was it to remember to use the listening skills?
