March 13, 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in support of Saraswoti Shinkle for a secondary English Language Arts Teaching position. Over
the past two years I have worked closely with Ms. Shinkle. I have been her instructor for two different English
education courses: English 401, Teaching Reading and Education 463: Secondary English Teaching Methods.
In both of these classes, Ms. Shinkle received top marks on her work and was an important contributor to the
class discussions; In my estimation, Ms. Shinkle is in the top 1% of all students I have taught at CSU and a
voice and mind I expect to influence classrooms across her career. In addition, Saraswoti participated in a
semester-long unpaid internship to organize the CSU English Departments Adolescents Literature Library.
Taking into account her exemplary work as a student, her role as an intern that I supervised, and our ongoing
conversations as an informal mentor to her, I can attest to Saraswoti Shinkles powerful potential to be an
amazing teacher.
It has been a privilege to support Ms. Shinkles instructional design. In both of my classes, Saraswoti create
powerful and engaging lesson plans as well as a detailed, standards-based yearlong plan for teaching. Her
interests in writing and tactful decisions in approaching her craft make me confident that she will be an
incredible teacher. Her own, extracurricular interests in music and spoken word poetry will further add robust
extracurricular activities for students at the school that is lucky enough to hire Saraswoti.
Ms. Shinkles maturity as an educator and eagerness to delve into complex discussions and challenging texts
highlight the ways she flourishes academically. She is as skilled a writer as I have come across in my classes
thus far. She has crafted and developed plans for unique multimodal writing assignments in my classes
including photo essays and public letters. Her attention to genre, audience, and engagement suggest that she
would be able to transfer these necessary skills for Common Core-aligned classrooms. In my E 401 class,
Saraswoti turned in myriad writing samples that demonstrated mastery of a bevy of genres and teaching
approaches. Ms. Shinkles work in my classes exceeded my course expectations.
On numerous occasions, Ms. Shinkle has met with me to discuss work in the class, to elaborate on the shifting
challenges of the teaching profession, and to look for extracurricular guidance. Her initiative in leading a
department library was visionary and involved both tedious work and a commitment to youth literature that
will translate powerfully into classrooms.
I want to reiterate that I highly recommend Saraswoti Shinkle as an English teacher and I look forward to
continuing to learn from one of the brightest students I have had the pleasure of working with. I am more than
happy to answer any questions to further illustrate Ms. Shinkles professional teaching potential.
Sincerely,

Antero Garcia, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
English Department, Colorado State University
359 Eddy Building
Campus Delivery 1773
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1773