April 14, 2020

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Sam Evalt. I am Ms. Elena Espinoza’s field instructor. I can speak of observations
and growth of the past year. Throughout the internship, Elena has shown that she will make a
strong classroom teacher.

In both semesters, Elena illustrated strong practice in: 1) lesson planning; 2) promoting dialogue;
3) constructing a student-centered approach.

A strength Elena possesses in organization and planning led to well designed units. Within each
unit, she used multiple colors to draft different types of activities within the unit and by the
lesson. Each unit contained clear objective and goals for the students that led to a connected and
relevant assessment. Moreover, the daily lessons connected and build a clear scaffold of content
and skills through discussions, small group and whole class activities, and individual mastery
components.

Another strength has been the use of discussion to explore texts and meaning with her students.
One example of using discussion based strategies occurred during her Lord of the Flies unit. She
planned four Socratic seminars throughout the unit and scaffolded instruction and activities to
build a confident learning community. Each seminar had different objectives, but all had time
built in for reflection of learning and ways to improve each Socratic dialogue for the next one.
Doing so placed the students as co-collaborators of knowledge and responsible for each other’s
learning.

The example provides insight into Elena’s strengths as planner and using dialogue to shape a
student-centered learning environment. Moreover, it highlighted the way Elena values and builds
College of
rapport with her learners. She values their voice and builds in high expectations of shaping a
Education trusting and responsible class community. In addition, the approach also allows her to construct
culturally relevant practices that focus on the student communities within her classes. She finds
Department of ways to use modern and relevant forms of media as supplemental texts to highlight unit themes
Teacher Education
and build relational dialogue between the students and the texts.
Michigan State
University I recommend Ms. Elena Espinoza for your school and your district. She has an excellent
Erickson Hall foundation of teacher thinking and reasoning. I know she will make a positive impact as an
620 Farm Lane, Rom educator and person for your school community.
319A
East Lansing, MI 48824
Sincerely,
517-355-1726
Fax: 517-432-2795
education.msu.edu/te/sec
Sam Evalt
ondary/ Graduate Student
Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education
Michigan State University
evaltsam@msu.edu

MSU is an affirmative-action,
equal-opportunity employer.