Patricia G.

Hicks
UNH Graduate School of Education
88 Commercial Street
Manchester, NH 03101
pgarrellhicks@comcast.net
603.566.4549

February 28, 2015

To Whom It May Concern,
This letter is enthusiastic support of Jessica Zappalas candidacy for a position as a secondary English teacher. I have
supervised Jessicas academic work towards her M. Ed as well as her full year teaching internship since September of
2014. Prior to that I was also her instructor in ENGL 892, UNHs English Literature and Language Methods class. As a
result I have come to know Jessica quite well. I consider her a superior candidate. She has excellent communication
and writing skills; her training in ESOL (her other area of certification) has developed not only her ability to apply
ESOL best practices to her EL students but also the ability to differentiate and scaffold instruction in mainstream
classes. She is creative and innovative in her lesson planning, designing lessons that engage and empower her
students to become the scholars she sees within them.
It was during the fall semester of her internship, at McLaughlin Middle Schools EL Pullout Program, that I first saw
within Jessica the ability to solve complex problems for the good of her students. In this case she was working in a
situation where her students, 6th through 8th grade EL students, came from their mainstream classrooms to her
classroom once a day for additional help mastering the mainstream curriculum and advancing their English language
skills. They had grown accustomed to this being a time when they could expect, and demand, help with their
homework. They received no grade in this class, so they saw no reason why they should work for this teacher.
However, Jessica could see that merely helping them with each days homework would not enable them to be fully
successful students. Her cooperating teacher gave her a free hand to try different approaches. Jessica visited each
students mainstream core teachers (most of the faculty of the school) to find out what particular skills each of her
students needed to master, to better understand each teachers expectations, and to learn the academic language
that each student was expected to know. She also came to realize that her students were frustrated in their
mainstream class and so chose to develop lessons that were very different from the ones they were experiencing
there. Her lessons would be game and adventure based. Before long she was teaching students how to understand
the way a traditional textbook is organized so that they could use it more effectively by using a scavenger hunt
game. She was helping her students expand their English lexicons by learning to identify affixes and roots of words
by using a Bingo game. She used a Jeopardy game to help her students to develop the superlative forms of
adjectives to enhance their descriptive writing. Instead of helping each student with individual math word problems,
something all of her students struggled to master, she taught them all the strategies they could employ to solve
these problems on their own. Soon students were fully engaged in each lesson and demanded and needed much
less time for homework help. They felt empowered to do it themselves.
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400 Commercial Street Manchester, New Hampshire 03101-1113 603-641-4321 Fax: 603-641-4305 TTY: 603-641-4308 manchester.unh.edu



Jessica has brought these skills to bear on her spring internship at Central High School teaching English II level one,
College Composition, Writing Workshop, and English II level 4. I have observed her in her English II level one classes
teaching her students how to closely read sophisticated literature. Jessica realizes that some of the problems that
schools have, for example not enough funds to provide each student with a text which they can own, write on, and
annotate, provide barriers to student learning. This is a problem that Jessica doesnt just accept. Whenever possible
she provides photocopies of the text on which students can write. For example, in preparation for her students
reading of A Raisin in the Sun, she photocopied the poem Harlem by Langston Hughesthe poem from which the
play gets its titleand used a text rendering protocol to let her students break down the poem, annotate it, play
with the language of it, to understand its essential question: what happens to a dream differed that would also be
the theme of the play. She understands the students in these classes. They are primarily EL or LEP students. They are
often frustrated by school. They dont think they can succeed, but in Jessicas class they are breaking down symbols
and discussing authors craft. They are writing every day and sharing what theyve written. They are connecting the
situations and themes of the play to their own lives and sharing those connections with their peers in a respectful,
collaborative manner.
Jessica knows she cant photocopy every text that students read, but she can provide self-sticking notes for her
students to use to mark up the text. However, because she is so interested in what happens when lower level
students are given the same opportunity that scholars have, to own the text and learn to effectively annotate it, she
has made this the focus of her graduate colloquium investigation. She will be sharing the results of her study at the
COI conference in May.
Jessicas greatest asset is her determination to help all her students see themselves as scholars. She is a scholar. She
loves all the facets of literature and language and wants her students to feel the same way. Every day she pushes
her students to go for their personal best, and she provides the scaffolding to get them there. This works as well for
level 4 students as it does for level 1. Jessicas students respect her and trust her to get them to that next level. As a
result they are attentive and respectful in her classroom. She is highly organized and always prepared, so when she
asks the same of her students, they are more willing to meet her expectations.
Jessica Zappala is a superior candidate. I highly recommend you hire her.

Sincerely,

Patricia G. Hicks





__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

400 Commercial Street Manchester, New Hampshire 03101-1113 603-641-4321 Fax: 603-641-4305 TTY: 603-641-4308 manchester.unh.edu

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

400 Commercial Street Manchester, New Hampshire 03101-1113 603-641-4321 Fax: 603-641-4305 TTY: 603-641-4308 manchester.unh.edu