Department of English (MC 162)

2027 University Hall

May 10, 2022 601 South Morgan Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607-7120

To Whom It May Concern:

I write in support of Carolina Hinojosa’s application for an English teaching position. Carolina was a
student in my undergraduate Teaching of Writing methods course and showed much promise as an
educator.

One of the course’s central projects was the Unfamiliar Genre Project as outlined in Fleischer and
Andrew-Vaughan’s Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone, for which students read and wrote extensively
in a genre of their choice, gathering mentor texts and insight into the genre’s characteristics and
complexities. All this work culminated in a genre how-to book and annotated bibliography shared with
peers for future teaching use, a student-led lesson on the genre, and a reflective essay on what they
learned about teaching in the genre. Carolina chose the picture book genre, seeing in it the opportunity
for high schoolers to both work on concision and step into positions of leadership (as they would share
their stories with younger students). She did a fantastic job selecting models that showcased the genre’s
potential to address important, diverse topics, and her writing in the genre showed her to be deeply
attuned to young people’s social-emotional health.

Our final unit focused on the teaching of literary analysis writing, for which Carolina designed and
taught a lesson on “radical revision.” Her lesson plan exhibited a solid understanding of scaffolding (she
provided models and supported independent practice) and differentiation (she had alternative
assignments handy for each step of the lesson). Her teaching itself highlighted her responsiveness and
adaptability (she was able to revise her plan in the moment), as well as her commitment to student
growth (she performed many checks for understanding).

The course also contained a fieldwork component, for which Carolina supported five high school
freshmen in a composition course. Carolina built relationships with the students over a series of email
exchanges—always employing a warm and professional tone—then provided feedback on drafts of
various genres through Google Docs. In her feedback, Carolina was always positive, specific, and
rubric-based.

Carolina is bright, diligent, and committed to the teaching profession. I have no doubt she will make a
valuable contribution to your school community.

Sincerely,

Kate Sjostrom, PhD

Lecturer and Associate Director of English Education

Phone (312) 413-2200 • Fax (312) 413-1005 • www.uic.edu/depts/engl