April 4, 2019

To Whom It May Concern,

It is a pleasure to write this letter of recommendation for Kendal Anderson who is applying for a
position in your school/district. I have had the opportunity to work with Kendal as a professor in
our comprehensive literacy methods class taken during the Internship year in the Special
Education Program at Michigan State University. In this letter, I would like to provide you with
a glimpse of the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions Kendal will bring to a faculty,
while also speaking directly about this applicant.

We believe that the special education program at MSU is providing comprehensive and cutting-
edge professional preparation. Specifically, we have tried to prepare our teacher candidates both
broadly to encompass the many roles that special education teachers now play in schools, but
also with depth and quality within these critical roles. Special education teachers today must be
able to participate in at least four areas, including (1) providing remedial instruction for students
who have may have significant skill gaps, (2) participating on any number of collaborative
problem-solving teams, such as Response to Intervention, co-teaching, IEP’s, pre-referral teams,
and multidisciplinary evaluation teams, (3) provide access to the general education curriculum
within inclusive settings (i.e., instructional, behavioral, and social interventions,
accommodations, differentiated instruction, Universally Designed Learning), and (4) transition
programming, including key skills related to self-determination, self-advocacy, and self-
regulation as students make transitions throughout the lifespan (grade level and school-to-post
secondary).

Looking across these four areas, we have tried to develop significant depth and breadth in each.
Our students are prepared to teach non-conventional readers and writers using a variety of
Department of instructional methods and approaches. Our students are prepared to conduct comprehensive
Counseling, assessments in the core areas of literacy and mathematics and use data to inform instructional
Educational Psychology, planning for students. One of the hallmarks of our preparation has been to have teachers utilize
and Special Education evidence-based interventions in their practices. We fully expect that Kendal can fulfill a wide-
range of expectations you may have for special education faculty, whether that is to improve IEP
Richard S Prawat students’ basic skill levels in resource settings, delivering Tier II or III instruction as part of a
Chairperson larger RTI initiative, or providing access to the general education curriculum through a variety of
learning-to-learn strategies, instructional accommodations, or cognitive strategies. Our
Michigan State University graduates also have had an entire course devoted to technology, so bring this technical expertise
447 Erickson Hall to their teaching. All students are CPR trained.
East Lansing, Michigan
48824-1034 One of the things that Kendal will bring to a faculty will be a professional disposition to be a
team player that has a broader role in the building, through participation on a wide range of
517/353-6417
collaborative problem-solving teams. Effective communication and collaborative skills are vital
FAX: 517/353-6393
to the special education teacher’s success in the building, whether interacting with
parents/families, general education colleagues who are the primary teachers for most students
with disabilities, or through ancillary personnel who provides services to a child with an IEP
(i.e., school psychologist, social worker, physical therapist, speech and language, para-
MSU is an affirmative-action, educators). As districts move into school wide programs like Response to Intervention, Positive
equal opportunity institution. Behavioral Intervention and Supports, or Universal Design for Learning, the premium on
effective collaboration skills is heightened. Kendal is ready to assume this challenge and brings
knowledge of the collaborative process and can play a key role in providing direct service within
these system approaches. The successful implementation of these programs requires faculty
with both skill and will—and Kendal is positioned to assume key roles as a member of these
comprehensive teams as an intervention specialist, behavioral specialist, or co-teaching partner.
Whether thinking about how to better implement the Response to Intervention system in general
education classrooms or providing intense, tailored interventions to individual students, we
expect our graduates to become valued and valuable members of any collaborative problem-
solving team.

In the Spring of 2019, Kendal was a student in my CEP 804a Literacy Methods course. At
MSU, students have three literacy methods courses throughout their program. This final course
focuses on providing teachers with a balanced approach to providing instruction across the five
core areas of reading identified by the National Reading Panel (phonological awareness,
phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension), writing instruction, and
teaching learning-to-learn strategies to help students access core curriculum in content areas
(e.g., science and social studies). In addition to developing a comprehensive literacy assessment
system, students completed projects in reading, writing, and inquiry. A goal of the course was
to engage students as active learners who can be in search of knowledge, not just consumers of
isolated skill instruction. Specifically, Kendal sought to embed powerful, evidenced-based
reading and writing strategies into her lessons to accomplish the goal of supporting a student to
create strategies for other students.

Kendal developed one of the most individualized and unique inquiry units I have received,
because the unit was wrapped around the experience of one 6th grade student in her urban
resource classroom. Kendal identified a young man who was reading around the Kindergarten
or 1st grade level. The student exhibited significant behavioral and emotional challenges. Yet,
through all his resistance and defiance towards learning of any kind, she refused to give up on
him. She knew that she had to gain his trust, so that he could begin to take modest risks with
his learning. She found out that he was very knowledgeable in a particular video game. She
seized on this idea and determined that her student would become an “expert” in this game and
help teach others about the game. Because the student had so much background knowledge
about the game, he was positioned in the role of expert from the beginning—and he had such
extensive background knowledge, he could brainstorm information to Kendal, who took
dictation to capture the information. This helped to secure his engagement and buy in. Kendal
then introduced him to an evidenced-based intervention for writing called Cognitive Strategy
Instruction in Writing to guide the inquiry process. This process, cued by the acronym POWER
+ P (Plan, Organize, Write, Edit, Revise, and Publish), helped to support each step of the inquiry
process, and Kendal planned the unit with the student, taught him strategies for getting
information from multiple sources (text, video), organizing that information using graphic
organizers, drafting the information (often with the pen in Kendal’s hand, due to the student’s
limited ability to produce text), and then editing/revising the text for publication to an adult
audience.

Kendal knew that she would need to play a critical role in modeling, demonstrating, thinking
aloud, and scaffolding instruction for her student—that she needed to make explicit and concrete
the thinking and actions of more expert readers and writers. Kendal worked carefully to “make
visible” the usually invisible thinking of good readers through extensive modeling, thinking
aloud, and demonstrating how to use the strategies. That is, she modeled and demonstrated the
entire inquiry process, while thinking aloud, so her student could access her thinking as she
planned, researched, organized, drafted, edited/revised, and published their shared work. Kendal
apprenticed this student as a thinker and reader and writer. She followed a gradual release of
control model of “I Do”, “We Do”, and “You Do”, to make sure he had sufficient support in
learning and applying the strategies to his reading and writing. To support this student, Kendal
developed an individualized three-ring binder that organized the entire inquiry unit from start to
finish. In this sense, Kendal realized that she is always also teaching critical Executive Skills
that underlay difficulty for students with and without disabilities, including planning, time
management, working memory, organization, controlling impulses, and controlling emotions.
To say that Kendal brought this student to life is an understatement. It is evident that Kendal
will not give up on students. But, words are not enough. Kendal used her knowledge of how to
employ effective instruction, academic scaffolds, and building relationships with her students to
provide a truly special education. This is incredibly complex teaching—to provide both
academic and behavioral/motivational support—is difficult for experienced teachers. I could not
be more proud.

Beyond the content curriculum of a comprehensive curriculum, I believe there are intrapersonal
and interpersonal skills that will mark Kendal as an outstanding colleague. It was evident to me
throughout the semester that Kendal was an active learner in my classroom---she engaged with
the material with a critical eye. In fact, Kendal often stayed way beyond the class time to work
through issues with her instructors. You will notice immediately that Kendal is mature—she is
serious about teaching and its importance in students’ lives. She also displayed a very even and
professional disposition, all characteristics of excellent collaborators and problem solvers—my
sense is that Kendal maintains a level-headed approach, even when under duress. I suspect this
has partly been honed as a collegiate athlete in not one, but two sports: field hockey and ice
hockey. Additionally, Kendal displays a positive energy—she is positive, goal focused, and
thoroughly enjoys learning about things that may benefit her students. Finally, there is an
important difference between young teachers who want to “help” and those who maintain high
expectations through personal responsibility. I believe Kendal is in this latter group—and this is
a key disposition for new teachers to develop. Rather than creating a kind of co-dependence
where too much support is provided and not removed, I believe Kendal holds high expectations
for all of her students and expects effort from every child. If I were building a school from the
ground up, I would want people like Kendal—people who are focused on improving the lives of
their students through rigorous learning, high expectation, and able to share their expertise with
others in professional learning communities of all kinds. Kendal will not lead in a loud or
bombastic way; she will be highly accountable to her colleagues, students, and their families;
and she will let her students’ work communicate about her ability as a teacher. She will quietly
model excellence, accountability, creativity, and passion. Her students will no doubt achieve at
very high levels, as she has the ability to develop relationships through positive behavioral
supports, while also holding students to higher expectations than they may hold for themselves.

To conclude, I believe Kendal would be an important addition to any faculty. Kendal is going to
have many lucky students in her career. Someone will be very lucky to attract Kendal to their
faculty. In this letter, I have tried to provide some detail about the professional skills and
dispositions that our students develop as part of their teacher preparation program. We believe
that Kendal will be an outstanding team player, will be highly accountable to her students,
provide instructional expertise to many, and can participate in the multiple roles expected of
today’s special education professional. We are extremely proud of our teacher candidates and
confident that Kendal Anderson will make a good school better. I sincerely hope you have the
opportunity to learn more about Kendal, her teaching, and her vision for education. I think you
will be as impressed and proud of Kendal as I am. Of course, if you have any questions, please
do not hesitate to write (mariaget@msu.edu) or call (517) 432-1981.

Sincerely,

Troy V. Mariage, Ph. D.

Instructor for CEP 804a: Literacy Methods for Students with Mild Disabilities
Associate Professor
Special Education Program
Michigan State University