Department of Special Education

ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY Campus Box 5910

Normal, IL 61790-5910
Illinois' first public university Phone: (309) 438-8980

Bone Scholarship Committee

Illinois State University

February 25, 2023

To Whom It May Concern:

I write this letter in support of Alejandro Gonzalez Bone Scholarship application. Mr. Gonzalez
is a Junior English Education preservice teacher candidate at Illinois State University. He was in
my Fall 2022 SED 344 course, Teaching Secondary Education Content to Students with
Disabilities. Mr. Gonzalez was an engaged student who demonstrated a high level of skill in
implementing research-based practices to support students with disabilities in inclusive
environments. Throughout my course and as evidenced by his continued work ethic and
academic achievement Mr. Gonzalez demonstrates what it means to be an Illinois State Bone
Scholar.
Mr. Gonzalez displayed dedication and persistence in applying key concepts to his content area,
English Education. Throughout my course, students are required to not only acquire but integrate
concepts such as disability rights, Universal Design for Learning, Tier 1 strategies, accessibility,
and inclusive technology into their teaching practice. In course work and discussions, Mr.
Gonzalez was able to consider how to apply concepts that would support students with
disabilities in the English classroom. Mr. Gonzalez’s work on three important course activities
provide evidence for his work ethic and academic achievement as a scholar.
Connecting our course topics related to disability to every life is critical for generalizing
information to the greater society. Students complete an Issue Discussion assignment where they
identify story about disability in the news and lead a class discussion connecting course content
to the article. Many students do a nice job identifying an article in the news, however, Mr.
Gonzalez excelled. He selected a scholarly article from Disability Studies Quarterly focused on
the importance of bringing in disability representation in children’s literature in the English
Education classroom. This research-based article provides strong theoretical and practical
reasoning for integrating content that represents students in the classroom. Mr. Gonzalez
provided a rationale for presenting this article for his class discussion because of the importance
of providing students in the classroom opportunities to see themselves in the English classroom
and linked this to culturally responsive practices critical to building a safe and engaging
classroom. In presenting this information to his peers, Mr. Gonzalez supported his peers’
learning and application of disability representation in not just English Education but also other
secondary content areas such as the sciences, social sciences, and the arts. He went well above
my expectations for this assignment. I was impressed with the way he led the rich discussion
with care and support.
Another example of Mr. Gonzalez’s strong academic skills and work ethic was his sustained
work through the course. During most weeks, I have summative assignment that provide students
an opportunity to apply their knowledge of the content. The purpose of these activities is to
provide students to utilize multiple resources and reflect on their practice. Mr. Gonzalez
consistently excelled at these assignments. He was able to think critically about how the week’s
content supported inclusive environments and he provided specific, thoughtful, and meaningful
 Department of Special Education

ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY Campus Box 5910

Normal, IL 61790-5910
Illinois' first public university Phone: (309) 438-8980

analysis for how this information could be applied to his classroom. Very few students were able
to do this. However, when I read Mr. Gonzalez’s work applying Tier 1 strategies and classroom
community building strategies to the English Education classroom or his evaluation of his ability
to integrate UDL strategies and identify improvements, I was impressed. I discussed with him
that his ability to think critically about this content would make his classroom a rich and
engaging environment for all his students, including disabled students1 who may be in his
classroom. His sustained effort throughout the semester shows he has the work ethic, character,
and academic skills representative of a Bone Scholar.
The culminating activity that demonstrated Mr. Gonzalez’s ability to integrate course concepts
and apply them to his content area was his final project. In this project, students use case studies
of several disabled students and create a universally designed lesson plan that integrates all the
strategies and concepts taught throughout the semester. The case studies have varying support
needs and my students demonstrate their ability to support students in their content area using
our course content. Students are also required to reflect on how they can use the Equity Literacy
Framework2 to identify steps they can take to breakdown ableist structures in schools, starting
with their classroom. Mr. Gonzalez’s assignment demonstrated strong understanding of the
course content and the ability to integrate and communicate how this content would be used in
his lessons. He created a lesson plan focused on supporting students’ use of rich narrative writing
using specific strategies that could support specific students with disabilities. In the lesson plan
materials, he included visual supports and adapted reading level content to support all students,
including a student with intellectual disability reading several grades below grade level. He
included guided notes to support students, including a student who had difficulties taking notes
and organizing content. He also discussed using the FM system, positioning his body in a
particular way, and arranging the classroom to support a student with a hearing impairment he
was planning for. Finally, Mr. Gonzalez planned for collaboration with professionals before,
during, and after and purposefully planned to integrate both UDL strategies to support student
engagement and organization of information and Tier 1 strategies to support students’ learning.
In his reflection, Mr. Gonzalez spoke at length of how he recognizes his use of research-based
practices to support disabled students in inclusive classroom and his role as a future teacher
leader to make immediate and sustained change to make schools more inclusive and accessible to
disabled students, a key component of the Equity Literacy Framework. To my mind, this
embodies what a Bone Scholar should do: bridge the research-to-practice gap to address
inequities experienced by students in schools.
As evidenced in this letter, Mr. Gonzalez displays the work ethic, academic achievement, and
character representative of a Bone Scholar. I highly recommend him for the Bone Scholarship.
If you should have further questions, I can be reached at kcwolow@ilstu.edu or (309) 438-2630.
Sincerely,

Kim W. Fisher, Ph.D., FAAIDD

Assistant Professor, Special Education

1
I am using identity first language here (AUCD, 2020).
2
Gorski, P. (2016). Rethinking the role of “Culture” in educational equity: From cultural competence to equity
literacy. Multicultural Perspectives, 18(4), 221–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1228344