Capistrano Unified School District Excellence in Education Chaparral Elementary School 29001 Sienna Parkway Ladera Ranch + California 92604 (949) 234-5349 » FAX (949) 364-9952 March 5, 2016 To Whom It May Concern: 1 am honored to write a letter of recommendation for Clare Devlin who has been my student teacher in fourth grade at Chaparral Elementary School. Ms. Devlin incorporated effective instructional strategies across all curriculum areas. In English Language Arts Clare developed a comprehensive unit of study for Number the Stars. This unit integrated balanced literacy and powerful use of technology such as using the educational social networking tool Edmodo where students responded to higher order comprehension tasks. It was definitely a student-centered environment with lessons on setting, character analysis, imagery, inferring and a variety of writing tasks. Students wrote a formal opinion essay with whole group, small group and individual assistance provided by Ms. Devlin to meet the needs of all her students. Clare also created a wonderful lesson centered on the California history surrounding Japanese internment. Fiction and non- fiction were expertly connected with the read aloud So Far From the Sea. Clare provided quality time for the children to make inferences based on text and pictorial connections. Students were always engaged and involved in academic conversations with strong connections to the text. Ms, Devlin designed and implemented mathematical tasks that incorporated conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and mathematical reasoning. These tasks were rich, challenging and enjoyable for the students. Clare analyzed student work whether it was an exit ticket or informal observation during a lesson, She provided intervention for strugglers and differentiated for those ready for enrichment, Clare’s unit on subtracting fractions required students to explore strategies and respond to classmates with different strategies. She guided students through making connections to previously learned strategies by referring back to anchor charts-as an example. Academic conversations were a vital component of her lessons. Again she utilized technology in creative ways such as having a math talk chat group in Edmodo, fun exit ticket quizzes in Kahoot and language warmups in Google Classroom that she created in Google Forms. I’m most impressed with how much individual attention she provided on a daily basis. While students were working independently, she met with strugglers based on their understanding of a lesson. Student work was always checked and sorted based on understanding. This has made a huge difference in making sure that all students had ample opportunity to achieve mastery. Clare Devlin has demonstrated excellence in the integration of technology with all aspects of teaching and learning. Her technical skills are outstanding and most evident in her ability to create documents in Google Sheets for the purpose of documenting and analyzing assessments. Without exception she has been focused on Common Core State Standards and high levels of achievement for all students. Ihighly recommend this candidate to any teaching position. She has a very natural ability to teach and i a caring, gentle and dedicated educator. Clare is also highly intelligent and has an extraordinary quest for knowledge for herself and her students. Sincerely, Wyn. Takao Lyin F. Takacs