Official JAG competency wording: Comprehend verbal communications
Category: Basic Competencies
Source themes: listening skills, workplace interaction, comprehension
Source: JAG Competencies Descriptions.docx.
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Reviewed OSEU and Wolakota interview connections
D21 — Comprehend verbal communications
Explore D21 · Being Able to Listen - Stephanie Charging Eagle - OSEU #5 · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Primary): The speaker explicitly describes focused and critical listening, including retaining the meaning and accuracy of stories. OSEU 5.1 situates that listening within oral tradition and source accounts.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: The revised standard retains the meaning supported by the cited interview passage. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
Oceti Sakowin is very much a dynamic group, and although we did not gather in the summertime for our annual gatherings, we still do, especially now with transportation, everything. We are able to gather in other places with families, but I would want my students to know that they are very much alive. The people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the people on the Rosebud, Cheyenne River, they are all part of this Oceti Sakowin. That would be the first objective of that understanding, is to know that Oceti Sakowin is not dead, that it's very much alive, just now in a different way. And so historically, the idea that Oceti Sakowin is this, it's not just a group, it's a whole sociological, cultural, political, economic group. And that we have ties to not just the land, but with each other. And that establishes a group of people who are very much alive. And so that as a teacher, as an educator, that's what I hope, is that my students understand that these people over here from the Pine Ridge, the Oglalas, are related to these people from Minnesota, from Flandreau, Yankton. That they are all still related, even though they may not know each other, or know each other's language, they are still part of this group. Oath-telling was very important because you had to be able to... know cognitively what was important in that story, in what was being said. So you had to listen. And fortunately, we grew up in a time when we were told that if you're going to come to this gathering, you have to sit and listen. Next time, if you don't, next time you're staying home. That was it. No argument. There was no time out, nothing. You stayed home. So if you were able to go to a gathering and you listened, you never talked while somebody was talking, but you listened. And what I was taught was that you always listen to a person when they're speaking, particularly if they're older than you, and they're in a position where they have respect, authority, whatever. If they're speaking, there is no way you should be talking or doing anything else. Your whole attention should be, the focus of your attention should be on what that person is saying. The value of oral tradition, storytelling, language, whatever, is that you learn to listen, and you learn critically. You listen critically, then later you ask questions, you research, or you Google it. But you know, oral tradition, I used to teach little kids language, taught them Lakota language, and I used stories a lot, the Iktomi stories, and I got really good. The one thing I always had to remember is I could not change the story. I could pantomime along with it, or make all these weird sounds, sing if I have to, but with young children, I had the freedom to do that. Nobody, they didn't say, they didn't get embarrassed for me or anything, and so I was able to do that. But as time went on, when they got into high school, the same story was told, they should be able to listen and say, hey, this storyteller changed some things. They should be able to listen again critically to the story. Maybe it's more, it's entertaining still, but you still have to keep the important parts of the story in there. So there were some storytellers, just for that, they had that role. Not everybody was a storyteller, but you still had to be able to listen, and if you're going to tell that story another time, make sure you get the story, the concept, everything of it, so that when you do tell it, it's accurate. And that's all part of that oral language, that oral tradition, is always listening and listening critically, and know what to do with the information that you receive.
Learn About: What does Stephanie Charging Eagle say listeners should do with the information they receive?
Learn From: What listening practice could help you understand someone’s meaning before responding?
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0177; video Ol-a_U82wlk; passage containing: you always listen to a person when they're speaking. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
D21 — Comprehend verbal communications
Explore D21 · Oral Tradition- Victor Douville - OSEU #5 · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Victor Douville describes revising his approach to balance oral tradition and written learning and attending to language meanings. This supports D21 by inviting students to attend to meanings expressed orally.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
Oral tradition is one of the things I grew up with. My intention was to learn as much oral tradition as I could. And I found that also once I learned about that, then I'll go to the next step, which is to look at the other side, which is the written side, which is reading books to be able to balance those. The first mistake I made was to rely on written sources. When I was going to school, I read when I came to teach at the university in 1970. And by 1980, I began to realize that I'm going about it the wrong way. I should be able to set the oral source as the foremost. I've been doing the other one, written sources. I couldn't find any written sources back then, so I switched the other way and found that oral sources also lead to interpreting words, semantics and etymology, which is looking at the root words. And there you can find the true meaning of it.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of oral and written knowledge? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you attend to meanings expressed orally? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0028; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuk8Lzojaj0; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
D21 — Comprehend verbal communications
Explore D21 · Storytelling & Oral Tradition - Delores Taken Alive - OSEU 5 · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Delores Taken Alive contrasts reading a story with discussing its meaning in oral storytelling and asks what listeners gained. This supports D21 by inviting students to listen for meaning in an oral story.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
You know, that is very, like say, you read a story, the stories have values, the Lakota stories have values, there is something that you're going to, the moral of that story, but if you read it, it's not, it's just, you read it and it's gone. But if somebody comes to our classrooms and talks about the stories and the moral of that, what did you get out of it, what was so important? That's why I believe in oral storytelling, that's because I was always asked to do this at the Sundance Youth Camp, and I try to, you know, tell stories that there's morals to it, because that's the way these stories were a long, long time ago, how our stories have come. Even when you go out hunting, or even to make a hide, scrape a hide, or to beadwork and all that, there's always a moral to that story. And one that I like about that, he's no longer with us, Mr.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of listening to story values? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you listen for meaning in an oral story? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0121; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbv0bg3n-Q; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
D21 — Comprehend verbal communications
Explore D21 · Wolakota - Jesse Taken Alive - OSEU 3 · OSEU 3
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Jesse Taken Alive describes cultural difference, peacefulness, and listening with ears and observing with eyes when others share. This supports D21 by inviting students to listen before responding.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
A message for our friends…our non-Indian friends…there’s one Creator. There’s one world. Essentially we have the same address. The Creator is like a gardener, a magnificent gardener. He created mankind and he spread the seeds of mankind throughout the world. Different colors…different language…different culture…different history…different everything. But all coming from the same Creator. It’s beautiful. It’s really beautiful to think about it in that way. As Lakota, we have many teachings…as I said earlier…we say “wolakota,” which means peace or to be peaceful. That’s what we want to do. A lot of times that gets misunderstood in this aggressive world, in this capitalistic world, as not knowing or not caring. It’s totally the opposite. When somebody is sharing something with us, we use the two best things that we’ve got: our ears.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of listening and peaceful dialogue? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you listen before responding? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0130; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFo9CsZxf1w; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
Human Shaped Learning connection
Chapter 13: Fostering Collaboration and Community in the Classroom
Reviewed teaching connection: Reviewed connections: D21. Use a shared task with meaningful roles, turn-taking, paraphrasing, and feedback.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Ch. 13, actual manuscript pp. 99–105; Practical Strategies for Collaboration
Chapter 1: The Power of Relationship in Education
Suggested teaching connection: Suggested teaching connection for relationships, based on D21 competency. Begin with an invitation to share an interest or question; listen closely and acknowledge each learner’s contribution.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Chapter 1: The Power of Relationship in Education
Chapter 19: The Role of Silence in Learning
Suggested teaching connection: Suggested teaching connection for quiet processing, based on D21 competency. Offer a quiet pause after the interview and before discussion; students may think, write, or draw privately.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Chapter 19: The Role of Silence in Learning
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