UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

BERKELEY • DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • MERCED • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ

School of Education
3200 Education
Irvine, CA 92697-5500
evelyy1@uci.edu
(617) 840-6555

June 4, 2017

Dear Hiring Personnel,

It is my privilege to write a letter of recommendation on behalf of Adriana Mancilla. As her student

teaching supervisor, I have had the pleasure of observing Adriana in her field placement for the past
two months. Presently, Adriana is placed in a 2nd grade classroom in the Santa Ana Unified School
District, where 88% of the student population at the school are identified as socioeconomically
disadvantaged, 49% are English Learners, 26% of the students in grades 3-6 met or exceeded
standard on the 2015-16 CAASPP in ELA, and 20% met or exceeded standard in math.

Adriana is a thoughtful teacher who is attentive to the students' interests and needs. When she is
teaching, she is mindful of the students' depth of understanding and level of engagement, and she
likewise provides the appropriate academic or behavioral support to maximize the students' learning
opportunity. Her lessons are unique, creative, and engaging. For one of her lessons, she had the
students work collaboratively as “scientists” to observe fossils and form taxonomies based on the
features. She passed out a stack of pictures showing dinosaur fossils, and the students discussed the
features to determine whether they were land, sea, or air creatures and whether they were carnivores,
herbivores, or omnivores. Adriana set clear expectations that the students must draw their
conclusions based on fossil evidence rather than make conjectures based on what they think they
know about dinosaurs. She helped the students connect the concept of “drawing evidence from the
text” from their ELA lessons to this science activity.

In addition to her thoughtful lesson planning, Adriana also has excellent classroom management skills.
She has a calm and gentle presence in the classroom, and she establishes a classroom environment that is
safe and positive. She is quick to adapt to the unexpected and she has an uncanny ability to handle
multiple tasks with extraordinary patience and ease.

Adriana impresses me as an individual who is a self-initiator, a hard worker, and a reflective

individual. Her mentor teacher noted to me that Adriana stands out as one of the strongest student
teachers she has ever mentored. I am confident that Adriana will be an invaluable asset to your
school. Her passion and work ethics are worthy of the highest commendation. If I can answer any
specific questions regarding Adriana’s candidacy, please feel free to call me at 617-840-6555.

Sincerely,

Evelyn Young, Ph.D.

Lecturer, Multiple Subject MAT Program
Supervisor of Teacher Education