School of Education, 3206 University Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50311

To Whom It May Concern: I am writing this letter in recommendation of Mrs. Lexie Kurvoski, an applicant for position of secondary English Language Arts instructor in your school district. I first met Mrs. Kurovski when she enrolled as a graduate student in the Masters of Arts in Teaching program at Drake University. Since that time, I have come to respect her abilities, both as a student and as a future teacher. Lexie is an intelligent woman who possesses many of the skills and characteristics of a natural born teacher. She is open-minded, trustworthy, hardworking, caring, and respectful of others opinions. These attributes have allowed her to succeed as a student at Drake, and I have no doubt that they will allow her to excel as a teacher in your district. It is her passion for her content-area and ability to design engaging and rigorous curriculum; however, that separates Lexie from her peers. As a student in my course, Lexie was asked to create a unit of instruction using the Understanding By Design (UbD) framework. This approach to curriculum design emphasizes critical thinking and performance-based assessment; as well as, real-world problem solving. Lexie embraced the UbD framework and created a literature-based unit where students were asked to explore the connection between human beings and nature. In addition to employing flexible grouping as a differentiated instructional strategy, Lexie utilized project-based learning as an instructional strategy and writingto-learn as a form of assessment. Her unit was, by far, one of the best that I receivedwith respect to both its level of rigor and concern for authentic student learning. Please accept my highest recommendation of Mrs. Lexie Kurovski. She will make a fine addition to your faculty. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by email at todd.hodgkinson@drake.edu or by phone 515-271-4565. Sincerely,

Mr. Todd Hodgkinson Assistant Professor of Secondary Education Drake University

THodgkinson