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 Selena Park. As her student

teaching supervisor, I have had the pleasure of observing Selena in her field placement for the past
two months. Presently, Selena is placed in a 3rd 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.

Selena is a thoughtful teacher who is cognizant of the students' academic, socio-emotional,

linguistic, and behavioral needs. She routinely delivers lessons that are engaging and challenging for
the students. She also differentiates instruction and makes modifications accordingly to support
students’ understanding of the academic concepts. Selena is creative in her instructional pedagogy
and curricular design. For one of her math lessons, she set up math stations where students used pre-
measured bags of rice that weighed 1g, 10g, 100g, and 1kg to estimate whether the objects at each
station was greater than or less than the weight of the bag of rice. The students engaged in rich math
discourse as they pondered the weight of each item. The lesson was noteworthy for a couple of
reasons. One, 3rd grade students generally have a difficult time grasping the concept of metric units.
By having the students physically handle the different weights of rice, the students were able to have
a firmer grasp of just how heavy 1g is in relation to, say, 100g. Two, throughout the 1-hour lesson,
100% of the students were enthusiastically engaged and actively participating in this lesson. Not
only was the activity hands-on, collaborative, and educational, but it was captivating for the students
as well.

In addition to Selena’s thoughtfulness in lesson planning, she has excellent classroom

management skills, and she creates a safe and positive learning environment where students are
encouraged to share their ideas. Selena has a kind disposition and a genuine love for teaching.
She is eager to learn and quick to turn constructive feedback into a new instructional or behavior
management strategy that she could implement in her classroom. Selena works well
independently as well as collaboratively. I am confident that Selena will be a great asset to your
school. If I can answer any specific questions regarding Selena’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