Klotylda Phillippi, Ph.D.

Educational Studies, Teacher Education Language, Literacy and Culture

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
610 E. UNIVERSITY AVE., 1302f SEB ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 734.763.5654 klophil@umich.edu

April 15, 2012

To Whom It May Concern: It is my pleasure to recommend Patrina Langford for a teaching position in your school district. I was Patrinas instructor for three courses at the University of Michigan Developmental Reading and Writing in the Elementary School, taken in the fall, 2010; Individualizing Reading and Writing Instruction in the Elementary School, in the winter, 2011 and Facilitating Classroom Discussions in the fall, 2011. In addition, I was her field instructor (ED 307 Learning in and From Practice) during the first two semesters when she participated in a Focused School Site, field-based experience at two elementary schools in the Plymouth-Canton Community School district. The combined experience of teaching Patrina in our courses and observing her teaching and interactions with students and teachers in the schools provided me with significant insights upon which to base my recommendation for her. Our courses at the University of Michigan focus on best practices as well as keeping equity and social justice in the fore. Our program requires students to thoughtfully reflect on their own teaching as well as the teaching of others. Patrina made good progress in these areas throughout the courses and into student teaching. Her warm personality and great admiration for the children made her a favorite in each classroom. She repeatedly expressed her interest in her students, their interests and proficiencies and in her goal to provide optimal instruction for each of them. She always demonstrated interest in keeping children and families in focus as she provided standards-based learning opportunities. Her interactions with students, teachers and staff always reflected her professionalism and respect for others. Patrina had experiences in planning and teaching at two elementary grade levels and one middle school class during the practicum for my courses. She did her elementary field experiences in kindergarten and fourth grades with very talented mentor teachers. Her classrooms focused on Four Blocks instruction including independent reading, guided reading, writing workshop and word study. For my language arts courses in the elementary school she planned and enacted assessments of students which included running records, Developmental Reading Inventory, Qualitative Reading Inventory, collecting work samples and observational notes. During our first semester together, she completed a semester-long child study of one of her kindergarten students culminating in a mock parent-teacher conference during which she presented her knowledge of the childs strengths and needs, provided evidence with her assessments and samples of the childs work, results of lessons she had planned specifically for the child and her

recommendations for further instruction. Her final paper for this course was a thorough and thoughtful description of how she would teach language arts in her elementary classroom. During our second semester course, she did not focus specifically on one child, but did consider the range of student proficiencies in her class to provide differentiation in her lessons planned for both language arts and social studies. She planned and enacted an interactive read aloud during which she skillfully facilitated a thoughtful discussion using a picture book integrated with the class unit in social studies. Patrina worked with culturally and racially diverse middle school students for our Facilitating Classroom Discussions course. She planned and enacted lessons that guided students through challenging social studies textbook reading and discussion. Patrina was a collaborative member of her cohort of Teacher Education students. The first year teacher candidates are placed in classrooms in partnerships and some of the planning and teaching was done with her partners and her mentor teacher. Unit planning in Social Studies was also done collaboratively. Patrina will most certainly bring this desire to work collegially to your school. You can count on her to also provide freshness and enthusiasm in her work. Besides her work in our challenging Teacher Education program, Patrina was active in Kappa Delta Pi, the education honor sorority, and Becoming Teachers for Tomorrow and found time to substitute teach. I am delighted to recommend Patrina Langford to you. Please feel free to contact me if I can provide further support for her. Sincerely,

Klotylda Phillippi, Ph.D.