March

01, 2018

To Whom It May Concern:

It gives me great pleasure to recommend Richard O’Connell for an English
teaching position at your school. I have known Richard through the context
of his teaching internship over the course of the past academic year, and he
exhibits both a deep commitment to educating students and the utmost
professionalism in his encounters with professors, colleagues, and students.

I currently serve as Richard’s field supervisor for his teaching internship.
This role allows me to regularly observe Richards’s teaching and to visit his
post-baccalaureate course to co-plan with him as well. I am also responsible
for evaluating his teaching for certification. My extensive time working with
Richard has allowed me to come to know him as a well-rounded teacher who
always considers his students’ needs when designing and implementing
curricula.

I’ve been particularly impressed with Richard’s integration of technology
into his classroom instruction. For example, in one lesson I observed,
Richard thoughtfully used Google Drive to scaffold students in revision of
their argumentative essays, a lesson focused on providing sound evidence
and explaining that evidence through analysis. Richard asked students to
turn off their monitors while he gave instructions and modeled a sample
paragraph; his thoughtful management engaged students in his mini-lesson
College of without technological distraction. He then allowed them time to work in
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Google documents on their papers. He provided students with a folder of
Teacher Education resources as consultation during this work period and circulated to assist
students. I was impressed that he refrained from telling students what to
Michigan State write and instead asked students what samples from the folder they might
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620 Farm Lane, consult as models or what purpose their analysis was serving in their paper
313 Erickson Hall as a whole. Most impressive in this lesson, though, was that Richard never
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assumed that students knew how to successfully navigate the technology. He
517-353-5091 reminded students of Google Drive functions, helped them learn to share
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education.msu.edu their document in various ways, and walked them through how to access
their paper at home. Thus, in this lesson Richard worked with students on
content—providing evidence for claims—and taught them to be ethical and
proficient users of technological tools.

Richard has also recently planned a literature circle unit around choice texts.
In this unit, he has paid particular attention to developing and deepening
students’ understanding of theme. He expressed to me that he wanted
students to understand that theme extends beyond noting similarities across

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texts or within sections of text and he has worked with students to write
more nuanced thematic statements. He has done so by asking students to
make connections across their personal experiences, current events,
nonfiction sources, and their chosen texts; across these connections, he has
asked students to complicate their responses, not to focus only on evidence
that supports their point. This approach has supported his students and their
development of critical thinking skills.

Richard is a particularly hard-working teacher who always aims to grow his
practice despite already possessing many strong teaching qualities. For
example, he often will ask me directly to let him know what he can be doing
better if my feedback has been particularly complimentary. This request is
quite atypical of a teacher intern, but shows Richard’s commitment to
continuing to grow. It also shows his maturity; he is able to listen
thoughtfully to suggestions about his teaching and adjust his instruction
based on those recommendations. He has treated his internship as a true
opportunity to learn and grow.

I truly believe that Richard will make a positive impact on the students she
teaches and the teachers he works with, and I recommend him with full
confidence. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or just
want to know more.

Sincerely,

Mandie Dunn
Secondary English Field Instructor
Michigan State University
404-630-2604
dunnmand@msu.edu