Listening Lesson with 3-by-3 Personal Inventory

Circle Chat
This is a quick and easy tone setter to precede curriculum on communication or listening.
Participants can stand in a good circle, facing front to back. Instruct participants that they are
going to share with the person standing in front of them (fill in simple instructions here:
‘favorite vacation’, ‘happiest moment’).
The trick with this is to share your story while simultaneously listening to the story of the
person behind you. This depicts the fairly obvious message that it is hard to listen while
talking, (also, how often in conversations are we formulating our response while the other
person is still speaking?).

Building Blindly
Pairs –backing each other.
• Partner 1 sees a construction of building blocks and partner 2 cannot see it. (Have a variety
of building block shapes, with enough for all groups),
• Partner 1 describes how and where to place the different shaped blocks to duplicate what
he/she sees.
• Partner 2 must duplicate the design, and partner 1 cannot look at what partner 2 is doing.
• 1st time do this with open two-way communication between partners.
• Rotate positions then do it with one-way communication from Partner 1.

Discuss challenges with the activities and relate them to good listening skills.

Have students fill out the 3-by-3 Personal Inventory and collect them. Two to Three months
later have students do the 3-by-3 Personal Inventory again, then hand back the ones done
now. Compare answers and discuss.

Note: The 3-by-3 Personal Inventory should be done after discussing “The Ripple Effect”
(http://elgg.net/dtruss/files/1748)
 3-by-3 Personal Inventory

1a) Having a conversation with close friends I am a:

1 2 3 4 5
Poor Listener Great Listener

b) Having a conversation with classmates I am a:

1 2 3 4 5
Poor Listener Great Listener

c) Having a conversation with classmates, that gets picked on often, I am a:

1 2 3 4 5
Poor Listener Great Listener
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2a) When I argue with close friends I am:

1 2 3 4 5
Impatient/Agitated Patient/ Calm

b) When I argue with classmates I am:

1 2 3 4 5
Impatient/Agitated Patient/ Calm

c) When I argue with classmates, that get picked on often, I am:

1 2 3 4 5
Impatient/Agitated Patient/ Calm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a) When I witness a close friend being picked on I:

1 2 3 4 5
Join in/Laugh Ignore it Stop it/ Help out

b) When I witness a classmates being picked on I:

1 2 3 4 5
Join in/Laugh Ignore it Stop it/ Help out

c) When I witness a classmates, that gets picked on often, being picked on I:

1 2 3 4 5
Join in/Laugh Ignore it Stop it/ Help out
 Scoring your 3-by-3 Personal Inventory
Name:
(a) (b) ( c)
Question #1
Question #2
Question #3
Total

Your total for (a) tells you how you relate with your close friends.
Your total for (b) tells you how you relate with your classmates.
Your total for (c) tells you how you relate with students that get picked on.
What your totals mean:

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Negative No Small Medium Bigger Huge
Ripple Ripple Ripple Ripple Ripple Wave!

Can you be a more positive influence on others?

What specifically can you do to be a more positive influence on others?

(The more specific you are the more likely you are to change in a positive way!)

If you did this Personal Inventory in 2 months what do you think the totals would be?
(a) = (a) =
(b) = (b) =
(c) = (c) =