May 7, 2020

To Whom It May Concern,

It is a pleasure to write this letter of recommendation for Megan McCaffrey who is applying
for a position in your school/district. I have had the opportunity to work with Megan as an
instructor in our comprehensive literacy methods class taken during the Internship year. In my
former role as Program Coordinator, I also have administered the special education program at
Michigan State University (2006-2018). In this letter, I would like to provide you with a
glimpse of the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions our students will bring to a
faculty, while also speaking directly about this applicant.

We believe that the special education program at MSU is providing comprehensive and cutting
edge professional preparation. Specifically, we have tried to prepare our teacher candidates
both broadly to encompass the many roles that special education teachers now play in schools,
but also with depth and quality within these critical roles. Special education teachers today
must be able to participate in at least four areas, including (1) providing remedial instruction
for students who have may have significant skill gaps, (2) participating on any number of
collaborative problem-solving teams, such as Response to Intervention, co-teaching, IEP’s,
pre-referral teams, and multidisciplinary evaluation teams, (3) provide access to the general
education curriculum within inclusive settings (i.e., instructional, behavioral, and social
interventions, accommodations, differentiated instruction, Universally Designed Learning), and
(4) transition programming, including key skills related to self-determination, self-advocacy,
and self-regulation as students make transitions throughout the lifespan (grade level and
school-to-post secondary).

Looking across these four areas, we have tried to develop significant depth and breadth in each.
Our students are prepared to teach non-conventional readers and writers using a variety of
Department of
instructional methods and approaches. Our students are prepared to conduct comprehensive
Counseling,
assessments in the core areas of literacy and mathematics and use data to inform instructional
Educational Psychology,
planning for students. One of the hallmarks of our preparation has been to have teachers utilize
and Special Education
evidence-based interventions in their practices. We fully expect that Megan can fulfill a wide-
range of expectations you may have for special education faculty, whether that is to improve
Richard S Prawat IEP students’ basic skill levels in resource settings, delivering Tier II or III instruction as part
Chairperson of a larger RTI initiative, or providing access to the general education curriculum through a
variety of learning-to-learn strategies, instructional accommodations, or cognitive strategies.
Michigan State University Our graduates also have had an entire course devoted to technology, so bring this technical
447 Erickson Hall expertise to their teaching. All students are CPR trained.
East Lansing, Michigan
48824-1034
One of the things that Megan will bring to a faculty will be a professional disposition to be a
517/353-6417 team player that has a broader role in the building, through participation on a wide range of
FAX: 517/353-6393 collaborative problem-solving teams. Effective communication and collaborative skills are
vital to the special education teacher’s success in the building, whether interacting with
parents/families, general education colleagues who are the primary teachers for most students
with disabilities, or through ancillary personnel who provides services to a child with an IEP
(i.e., school psychologist, social worker, physical therapist, speech and language, para-
MSU is an affirmative-action, educators). As districts move into school wide programs like Response to Intervention,
equal opportunity institution.
Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, or Universal Design for Learning, the premium
on effective collaboration skills is heightened. Megan is ready to assume this challenge and
brings knowledge of both the collaborative process and can play a key role in providing direct
service within these system approaches. The successful implementation of these programs
requires faculty with both skill and will—and Megan is positioned to assume key roles as a
member of these comprehensive teams as an intervention specialist, behavioral specialist, or
co-teaching partner. Whether thinking about how to better implement the Response to
Intervention system in general education classrooms or providing intense, tailored
interventions to individual students, we expect our graduates to become valued and valuable
members of any collaborative problem-solving team.

In the Spring of 2020, Megan was a student in my CEP 804a Literacy Methods course. At
MSU, students have three literacy methods courses throughout their program. This final
course focuses on providing teachers with a balanced approach to providing instruction across
the five core areas of reading identified by the National Reading Panel (phonological
awareness, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension), writing instruction,
and teaching learning-to-learn strategies to help students access core curriculum in content
areas (e.g., science and social studies). In addition to developing a comprehensive literacy
assessment system, students completed projects in reading, writing, and inquiry. A goal of the
course was to engage students as active learners who can be in search of knowledge, not just
consumers of isolated skill instruction.

To accomplish this goal, Megan developed a detailed inquiry unit with 21 4th grade students in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, our second largest city, after Detroit. It is particularly important that
the committee understand a bit about the demographics of her building and class. Megan’s
school had 91% of their students receiving free or reduce-price lunch. 81% of her population
was Hispanic, with a majority of these students speaking English as a second language.
Additionally, over half of her class (55%) were reading below the 40%ile in reading. Finally.
among the 21 students were five students who had IEP’s.

Many experienced educators might recoil from teaching in this setting, but Megan not only met
the challenge head on, she created one of the most sophisticated Inquiry Units of any our 36
Intern teachers. Megan implemented a complicated set of instructional strategies for the
writing process and reading comprehension that could provide the scaffolded support necessary
to support her students as they became researchers and experts in a topic they identified
(“Inclusion: Race, Class, Gender, Age, Bullying”). Megan provided direct instruction on a
variety of reading and writing strategies, including a Close Reading strategy devoted to helping
students to interact with and “talk-to-the-text”, called Mark It (annotation) and Jot It (cognitive
strategies). Megan also utilized an evidenced-based writing program based on the work in
Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing, that used the acronym POWER + P (Plan, Organize,
Write, Edit, Revise, and Publish) to make the writing strategies and process visible to students.
This focus on metacognition is a hallmark of effective instruction.

What strikes me about Megan’s work is how she is making the work of inquiry authentic for
her students. Megan embedded strategies and scaffolds across virtually every phase of her
multi-week unit on “inclusion”. For example, Megan taught the SCORE strategy (Share ideas,
Compliment others, Offer help and encouragement, Recommend changes nicely, and Exhibit
self-control to proactively teach behaviors that would support civil discussion in her classroom,
and lead to higher levels of inclusion. As one might imagine, Megan was tackling issues of
discrimination, segregation, and oppression, but was doing so in a positive way—by talking
about issues of inclusion and exclusion. She had a team for 4 or 5 students each take an area,
such as race, class, gender, age or bullying to research. Megan identified numerous resource
material from multiple modalities, including texts, online web resources, and video.

Even the most experienced and seasoned teachers are often unable to provide this level of
scaffolded support. Yet, Megan had the courage and expertise to expect more from her
students. Rather than expecting passive learning, Megan changed the equation by calling her
students researchers. She then set about to provide direct and explicit instruction to get
information from the text (e.g., main ideas, details, taking notes) and then how to plan,
organize, draft, edit, and revise a written report. By identifying a real audience, students in her
class redoubled their attention to detail and were receptive to learning key communication
skills related to sharing information to an external audience.

Beyond the content curriculum of a comprehensive curriculum, I believe there are

intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that mark Megan as an outstanding colleague. It was
evident to me throughout the semester that Megan was an active learner in my classroom---she
engaged with the material with a critical eye. She also displayed a very even and professional
disposition, all characteristics of excellent collaborators and problem solvers—my sense is that
Megan maintains a level-headed approach, even when under duress. Additionally, Megan
displays a positive energy that is contagious—she is positive, goal focused, and thoroughly
enjoys learning about things that may benefit her students. Finally, there is an important
difference between young teachers who want to “help” and those who maintain high
expectations through personal responsibility. I believe Megan is in this latter group—and this
is a key disposition for new teachers to develop. Rather than creating a kind of co-dependence
where too much support is provided and not removed, I believe Megan holds high expectations
for all of her students and expects effort from every child. If I were building a school from the
ground up, I would want people like Megan—people who are focused on improving the lives
of their students through rigorous learning, high expectation, and able to share their expertise
with others in professional learning communities of all kinds. Megan will not lead in a loud or
bombastic way, but she will let her students’ work communicate about her ability as a teacher.
She will quietly model excellence, accountability, creativity, and passion. Her students will no
doubt achieve at very high levels, as she has the rare gift of developing relationships through
positive behavioral supports, but also holding students to higher expectations than they may
hold for themselves.

To conclude, I believe Megan would be an important addition to any faculty. I have taught
several thousand Interns in my 30 years in higher education. I believe that Megan has the
potential to be among our finest teachers we have helped prepare at Michigan State University.
I reserve this comment for between 1-3 interns each year. These students are students who will
be leaders in their building; they will be among the most committed faculty you have; they will
be highly accountable to helping each child grow; and they understand the critical role of
special education in a building and in society (e.g., inclusion, self-determination). In this
letter, I have tried to provide some detail about the professional skills and dispositions that our
students develop as part of their teacher preparation program. We believe that Megan will be
an outstanding team player, will be highly accountable to her students, provide instructional
expertise to many, and can participate in the multiple roles expected of today’s special
education professional. We are extremely proud of our teacher candidates and confident that
Megan McCaffrey will make a good school (much) better. I believe that Michigan State
University prepares the highest quality teachers in the nation. That is a bold statement. I
sincerely hope you have the opportunity to learn more about Megan, her teaching, and her
vision for education. I think you will be as impressed and proud of Megan as I am. Of course,
if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write (mariaget@msu.edu) or call (517)
432-1981.

Sincerely,

Troy V. Mariage, Ph. D.

Associate Professor
Special Education Program
Michigan State University