Official JAG competency wording: Identify and demonstrate key communication skills
Category: Communications
Source themes: public speaking, active listening, interpersonal effectiveness
Source: JAG Competencies Descriptions.docx.
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Reviewed OSEU and Wolakota interview connections
K108 — Identify and demonstrate key communication skills
Explore K108 · Being Able to Listen - Stephanie Charging Eagle - OSEU #5 · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): The interview models attention followed by inquiry. This supports communication and clarifying directions, but does not itself teach every workplace direction-giving procedure.
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: How does the speaker distinguish listening carefully from simply being entertained by a story?
Learn From: When a direction is unclear, what question could you ask that shows you listened and want to understand?
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0177; video Ol-a_U82wlk; passage containing: You listen critically, then later you ask questions. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
K108 — Identify and demonstrate key communication skills
Explore K108 · Oral History & Ledger Art - Donald Montileaux - OSEU 5 · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): The interview shows visual and spoken communication working together. Students can distinguish what an image communicates from what the speaker must explain.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: The revised standard retains the meaning supported by the cited interview passage. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
And so oral history is very big for me, I mean, oral history is storytelling, and every time I show my piece of artwork, I have oral history, because all my drawings represent Lakota way of life,
Learn About: How does Montileaux connect an image with an oral account?
Learn From: How could you explain a visual product so an audience understands its intended meaning?
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0035 · video ID 408QfQkyXhA · cited transcript passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
K108 — Identify and demonstrate key communication skills
Explore K108 · Appreciating Life & Family - Delores Taken Alive - OSEU 4 · OSEU 4
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Delores Taken Alive recalls a kind, patient home with communication and togetherness. This supports K108 by inviting students to consider tone and care as communication choices.
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.
So we have real good life experiences. Growing up and disciplining us, we never knew what spanking was. We never knew what hitting was, nor yelling or screaming or any of that, you know, ways that, you know, make you feel bad. They are always so kind and loving. And after we have, you know, before my sister died, I always talk about our way of life, the upbringing. And we said, you know, did you ever remember being spanked or, you know, things that I mentioned? No. How about you? So I said, no. I don't ever remember. So that's how, you know, we, that's how we grew up. And I always think about, you know, our parents. How are they so patient? And they're so loving that, you know, we have not known any violent ways in our home. And we always, there's always communication. There's always togetherness because we grew up in a one-room log house.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of patient communication? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you consider tone and care as communication choices? 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-0126; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgnYgOz17vM; 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: K108. 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 K108 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 K108 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
Plan with these recommendations and select more HSL chapters.