ENGLISH

LANGUAGE
LEARNER
TEACHER
INTERVIEW
An interview with Jane Eckhoff, first grade teacher at
Washington Township Elementary School

Maddie Freguia

TCH_LRN 333 | Professor Nalee Moua | December 7, 2017

who I have watched grow from a student herself into a successful and confident teacher. Her

name is Jane Eckhoff, and she is a first grade teacher at Washington Township Elementary

School, in Valparaiso, Indiana. The school contact information can be found in the bibliography.

While this is only her first year with her own classroom, she has enough experience teaching

children for five teachers. When I interviewed her, she asked not to be recorded, however she

made sure that my notes were very thorough and very accurate. Her classroom demographics are

95% Caucasian and 5% Hispanic. All of her Caucasian students are native English speakers, and

the one student she has who is Hispanic is a native Spanish speaker (Eckhoff). So while this isn’t

a large population of ELL students that she is working with, it is still an educational experience

for her because having one ELL student in the classroom can make them more likely to be

targeted for bullying or feel more excluded because there is no one who understands him. Jane

told me that she was extensively trained to work with ELL students, and so having only one in

her classroom was disappointing, however she is making the best of this year and making sure

that he is getting all of the help he needs. Throughout the duration of our interview, while I was

taking notes I was simultaneously thinking of ways that the discussion points we brought up

were going to relate to the textbook. After analyzing the way that Jane approaches teaching her

ELL students, I have reached the conclusion that the two topics we discussed in class that relate

to Jane’s teaching are the Content-Based Instruction Approach, and the importance of hiring

well-qualified and correctly trained teachers. These two ingredients are arguably the most

important in creating a wonderful classroom environment with happy kiddos.

Jane said that in general, the most useful strategy she uses is to always touch base with

her ELL student prior to the in-class activity. Whatever subject it may be, she finds that the
student responds very positively when Jane sets aside some time for one-on-one instruction. If

she can just check in with the student and give a brief description of what the lesson is going to

talk about and give some examples and maybe even let the student look at the assignment before-

hand, it makes him feel much more calm and confident during the time of the actual lesson. I can

relate this back to a topic we discussed in class, content-based instruction. This method of

teaching is where content-area subjects and topics are used as the basis of instruction (Wright,

pg. 60). While this definition does not directly correlate with the method Jane is using, it has a

lot of similar core ideas. What Jane is doing is making sure that her student is prepared and

confident in the lesson plan or content area that she is teaching, and CBI specifically focuses on

teaching students to successfully communicate about the content area. Jane’s method is

somewhat of a slight variation of CBI. According to the textbook, few ELL teachers were

properly trained to teach such content areas, and the ELL population was growing rapidly in

schools. The solution to this is to help the ELLs learn the content area while supporting their

English language development (Wright). This is what Jane is trying to successfully execute when

she talks individually to her student. A few other ways that Jane helps her ELL student learn is

through preteaching, the use of partners, and scaffolding. These methods are well-known and

taught to future teachers, but she said that anything she thinks of to help her student, she will just

do it. While this is only Jane’s first year having a classroom all to herself, she claims to have felt

very well-prepared for all the obstacles that have been thrown at her, and she is thrilled to alter or

adjust her previous knowledge based on in-class situations. Teaching is all about having a plan,

but being prepared to jump ship and try something new if the students respond negatively

(Eckhoff).
 The second topic we have discussed in class that I could relate this interview to is the

importance of properly training teachers to be able to roll with the punches and adjust their

lesson plan to accommodate all of the students, but to also be prepared for anything that they

could encounter. This can apply to any number of things: having enough supplies for the

classroom, having a student who is drastically far behind in the curriculum, and difficult parents.

Jane said that being culturally aware has made teaching so much more of a rewarding experience

because she feels like she is already more open-minded than other teachers about having to alter

teaching strategies to accommodate all of her students. According to Jane, she has done lots of

cultural activities in her classroom such as read books about other countries and listen to cultural

songs. She said that her students are always very excited about learning new things about

different cultures and they always respond extremely positively. She said that when they explore

other cultures they are extremely fascinated and enamored by how people look, live, and speak

differently than they do (Eckhoff). Being culturally aware and just generally prepared to deal

with any situation that their kiddos throw at them, is one of the most important characteristics

that a teacher can have.

I appreciated so much that Jane took the time out of her vacation to let me interview her,

and I am so glad that she did because she provided some very interesting and useful information

that I can see directly correlate to the textbook and things that we talk about in class every day.

Being culturally aware, and using the Content-Based Instruction method of teaching are two key

pieces in successfully educating ELL students and helping them to enjoy their educational

journey.
Bibliography

Eckhoff, Jane. In person interview. Redmond, WA. Nov. 20, 2017.

Washington Township Elementary School. East Porter County School Corporation. (219) 464-3598.

383 E State Rd 2, Valparaiso, IN 46383

Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching english language learners: Research, theory,

policy, and practice (Second ed.). Philedalphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.

Appendix

1. What school do you teach at? What grade/subject do you teach? What sort of teaching
experience did you have before you started this job?

Teaches first grade at Washington Township Elementary School, in Valparaiso,

2. What are the demographics in your classroom? (Example: how many native English
speakers, how many non-English speakers, what languages do your ELLs speak?)

Her classroom is 95% Caucasian and 5% Hispanic. All of her Caucasian students
are native English speakers, and the 5% of my students, aka 1 student, is a native
Spanish speaker.

3. What methods have you felt to be most effective when teaching ELLs (English Language
Learners)?

Her student is a quick learner, and has done very well with becoming fluent in
English as a second language, but there are a few methods she has found to be
particularly helpful in aiding him. The first is creating background knowledge
ahead of a lesson. Many of her students share similar background knowledge, which
puts them ahead in new lessons she is teaching. It has been helpful for her to
preteach her students, therefore giving him background knowledge to help improve
understanding and success. Another method she finds effective is through
scaffolding. She does this through peer help, graphic organizers, visual aids, etc.
These help reinforce, and organize what she is teaching. Lastly, (although there are
others), she finds it effective to apply purposeful grouping. Through purposeful
grouping, her ELL student is grouped with students of varying English proficiency
levels – peers can be the best teachers.
 She uses the SIOP model for guidance.

4. How does being culturally aware benefit your teaching?

It benefits her teaching in so many ways. – There are three important aspects that
need to be taken in account when striving to be a culturally relevant educator –
sociopolitical consciousness, cultural competence, and academic success. It is
important to remember that being culturally aware doesn’t just involve the color of
a student’s skin, but also their beliefs, economic background, and academic abilities
and needs. When taking all these aspects into account, she is able to create lessons,
activities, etc. that are specifically designed to benefit her students. It also allows her
to be more compassionate, aware, and educated herself.

5. In what ways do you accommodate ELLs in your classroom? Did you find it to be
effective, why or why not?

Her students are accommodated through preteaching, partners, scaffolding, etc.

6. What are some techniques you use to help ELLs be more successful in test-taking?

She has found that with her student in particular, orally he is able to answer any
questions given to him on a test, however when required to read and write on his
own he struggles. Because of this he was given a lot of assistance in the beginning,
with reading and being able to orally answer the questions, and she has been
working on strengthening his ability, to one day complete tests on his own.

7. Do you believe teaching cultural awareness helps the students? If yes, how would you
incorporate it into your lesson plan?

Absolutely. She could go on forever about the importance of this. It should be both
directly and indirectly incorporated and addressed in lesson plans.

8. What are your views on current teaching strategies and which do you find the most
effective?

First and foremost, scaffolding instruction is sooooo important. She also uses:
cooperative learning, inquiry-based instruction, differentiation, graphic organizers,
and technology. She finds these all to be equally effective and important strategies to
be implemented in the classroom. They target different learning styles, thought
processes, and promote growth in many areas.

9. What changes have you made to your teaching style from when you first started teaching
to now?
 Since she is freshly out of school – the changes she has been making are based on
what she has learned from her students, and having a class all to herself. So far
changes have mostly been tweaking lessons and strategies, etc., in order to
accommodate and support her class.

10. Do you feel supported by the school/district/state? Why or why not?

On the school level, yes she does - she works for a small township school, that has a
tight knit group of staff. On a district level, it depends – sometimes she feels as
though her concerns are not heard. She has also felt as though district employees
are too far removed from the classroom, and she wishes they could see first-hand
what is happening in the schools. On the state level, yes and no – the state has some
unrealistic requests and expectations that are not benefitting the students at all.

11. How do you solve inner-classroom issues?

When solving inner-classroom issues, she believes it is important for her to help with
the resolution process. That being said – it is very important for students to develop
problem solving and communication skills, which allow them to solve conflict on
their own. So much of her method is to ask questions and allow them to come up
with solutions.

12. How do you interact with parents during parent-teacher conferences?

When she interacts with parents at conferences, her method is to start by asking
them if there is anything they want to discuss about their child, if not – she starts
with a positive about their child, move into problems/concerns/etc., and end with
another positive, so they leave feeling good about the conference, and open to
communicate with her further.

13. How do you approach racial or cultural tension between your students?

She reminds students that they don’t have to agree with everything our peers
believe, how they dress, and so on – but that they are a community, and they owe
each other respect, open-mindedness, and kindness. It is important for students at
her grade level to see that they may be very different on the outside or what they
believe in, but that they are all people. They share many common traits.

14. How do the requirements of common core affect the learning of ELLs?

Unsure at this moment

15. Have you ever done any culture related activities in your classroom? If yes, what were
they and how did your students respond?
 She has in a more general sense – learning about different religions, clothing, homes,
and things of that nature. Her students have LOVED this. They are curious and
enamored by how people look, live, and speak differently than they do.

16. How do you feel about standardized testing? Are there special accommodations for
ELLs?

This is a hard topic. Standardized testing isn’t effective when determining what they
understand, and it isn’t reasonable for them to complete in many ways. She doesn’t
work with standardized testing on the state level in her classroom, given she teaches
1st grade.

17. What do you think the school districts could do, in the future, to help ELL students and
ELL programs?

TRAIN THEIR TEACHERS. Many school districts don’t offer any sort of training
in TESOL or diversity for that matter, and that would be a huge benefit to ELL
students.