March 22, 2016

To whom it may concern,

I highly recommend Ms. Rachel Stemm for a teaching position at your school. As her field
instructor, I have worked closely with her this year on planning and facilitating student learning.
Of her many strengths, what stands out are her abilities to create engaging, content-rich lessons
and units and to scaffold and support students learning.
First, Ms. Stemm consistently created lessons and units this year that enabled students to explore
significant and interesting questions in a range of content areas. For example, she created a
fourth grade project-based learning unit on government that focused on the question: How can
we, as students, make sure that our voice is heard in the decisions that get made at our school?
This question then led students into an exploration of the schools government structure and how
this compares to that of the national government. After learning about our countrys founding
documents and the branches of government, students then applied this knowledge to creating a
proposal for how students at the school can have a voice in some of the school-wide policies and
decisions. Throughout her planning, Ms. Stemm drew on her understanding of students and their
desire to be thoughtfully engaged in meaningful content with their peers. Thus, each of the
lessons in this unit contained opportunities for students to work collaboratively to share and build
knowledge. As this example illustrates, Ms. Stemm took a broad and conceptually challenging
body of knowledge and made it meaningful and engaging for students.
What makes Ms. Stemm particularly impressive is her ability to scaffold instruction. In every
lesson I observed her teach this year, she thoughtfully modeled what she wanted students to learn
or be able to do and then she provided additional examples and support for students who were
challenged by the material. For instance, in math she created what were in essence guided math
groups, similar to what many teachers use in reading. In this way, she was able to target
instruction to groups of students, providing additional practice and re-teaching for those who
needed more time with a particular skill or content and challenging those students ready for more
rigorous content.
As these examples illustrate, Ms. Stemm embodies the key planning and teaching characteristics
that we hope to see in all teachers. These skills, coupled with her ability to work collaboratively
and flexibly with colleagues, lead me to recommend her as an excellent teaching candidate for
your school. Should you need additional information, feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,

Melissa K. Stull, Ph.D.

Instructor, School of Education

Melissa Stull School of Education 610 East University Ann Arbor, MI 48109 734-717-2008 mkstull@umich.edu