March 15, 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for Alex Steinman.
Alex was a student in my literacy course, LITED 4192 Experience in Reading: Tutoring
(Fall, 2015).
In the course, Alex worked with a developing reader. She assessed using the QRI-5
(Qualitative Reading Inventory 5), running records, interest and attitude surveys, phonics
knowledge assessment, and writing samples through a writing structure analysis format.
In addition to the assessments, Alex implemented instructional practices for reading that
were chosen from the research literature to be effective in the areas of comprehension,
word recognition, vocabulary and fluency. Across both assessments and instructional
practices, Alex was very organized and thoughtful in her preparation of her tutoring
sessions. Her lesson plans were detailed and thorough. Alexs interest in reading and
writing processes became evident in her analysis and evaluation of the assessment data
and of the clients responses to instructional practices. Alex tutored her client for thirty
contact hours, focusing on improving her clients literacy using a reading-writing-reading
lesson format, applying ongoing assessments through running records, and evaluating
progress through a portfolio of the clients work.
Throughout her tutoring work, Alex was thoughtful in her interactions with her client.
Alexs continued interest and successful efforts in providing effective instruction was
based on informed decision making through data gathering and through ongoing analysis
and problem solving of the clients responses to instruction. During her work with her
client, Alex provided three reports on the clients progress: an initial written status report
of the assessment results and proposed instructional plan, an oral status report provided to
the parents of the childs assessment results and plans for instruction, and a final
summary report of tutoring that included results from instructional sessions. Alex was
able to create well written and accurate reports of progress that were informative and
thorough.
Throughout her work in this course, Alex was consistently professional, organized,
thoughtful in her problem solving, and engaged. Her interest in working with struggling
readers and writers was evidenced across her tutorial and course work where she
demonstrated a strong understanding of the reading and writing processes and a desire to
make these processes accessible to all learners. As a classroom teacher, Alex would bring
her current preparations as an endorsed Reading Teacher to the classroom as an extremely
informed classroom teacher of literacy. And she would also make a terrific Title 1
Reading Teacher with her commitment and interest in working with struggling readers. I
find Alex Steinman to be a teacher who would be a strong addition to any faculty. I
highly recommend her for any teaching position she should choose.
Sincerely,

Jane Frost
University Of Northern Iowa: Literacy Education