January 25, 2018

To whom it may concern,

It is with great delight and enthusiasm that I write this letter of recommendation for
Jennifer Zaffetti. I have had the privilege of knowing Jennifer as a diligent and engaged
student in her junior year, in my Teaching & Learning seminar class, and in a graduate
level seminar class, Teacher as Leader, that meets 2.5 hours each week for the entire
academic year and is designed to support an eighteen-hour per week Master’s internship.
So, I have come to know Jennifer very well, both as a conscientious and successful
scholar, and a competent and creative practitioner. During the past three years, I have had
the privilege of witnessing Jennifer’s growth and development, as an educator and a
person.

Jennifer presents with the confidence and competence of a seasoned teacher and yet she
maintains a teachable spirit, continuously reflecting on her own practice and working to
grow and improve. Jennifer is a gifted person, who has the ability to effectively apply her
intellect to a broad range of educational issues and classroom settings. She is pursuing
professional licensure in both elementary education and secondary English, and
additionally, is working toward a graduate certificate in Gifted Education and Talent
Development. She is truly one of the most industrious and productive education students
I have ever known.

During the student teaching year, Jennifer pursued a very challenging urban placement in
a neighborhood school in Hartford, CT (E.B. Kennelly School), where she taught fourth
grade English language arts, mathematics, social studies and science. Hartford does not
have a formal social studies curriculum, so Jennifer took the initiative to incorporate
geography into the morning routine. For math class, Jen engaged her learners, in the
study of fractions, by utilizing Zearn, an interactive math website that can be displayed
on a Smartboard. Students were guided through math problems and given the opportunity
to practice solving equations with partners. In her reading class, Jen taught a unit on John
Reynolds Gardiner's, Stone Fox. During the unit, students illustrated their favorite scenes,
created flyers for the race, became cartographers by drawing a map of the race route,
wrote letters to the main character for encouragement during the race, and became news
reporters! Jennifer’s commitment to equity and access caused her to differentiate the
instruction to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of learners, while also encouraging
collaborative work, higher-level thinking, and discussion skills. She set clear expectations
and reinforced positive behaviors, engineering a safe, welcoming and nurturing learning
environment that supported the success of all students. Additionally, her congenial and
transparent manner promoted easy and regular communication with parents and
colleagues.
During her internship at Verplanck Elementary School, in Manchester, CT, Jennifer
implemented the Socratic Seminar model with third, fourth and fifth grade students in an
effort to strengthen their critical thinking, literacy and discourse skills, and cultivate self-
motivation by applying student-centered learning. To stimulate interest, Jennifer and a
colleague had the students complete a book-interest survey and then vote on a book to
read. As a way to promote reading comprehension, the third grade students had an
opportunity to participate in Reader's Theater, and to choose a passage from Louis
Sachar's, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, to act out.

As a requirement of Jennifer’s seminar class with me, she designed and implemented an
action research project that necessitated a literature review, data collection and analysis.
She examined the impact that literature has on elementary education students as a way to
encourage them to identify their own emotions and personality traits in order to prepare
for the best way to respond to bullying. Her research study recognized the importance of
teaching social skills, conflict resolution and problem solving strategies in school
settings. Her contributions to the project demonstrated her solid scholarship, her ability to
be innovative, her willingness to collaborate, and her commitment to best educational
practices.

In addition to being a conscientious and intellectual student, Jennifer also possesses many
fine personal attributes. She genuinely cares about people and expresses this attitude to
them with sincerity. Her passion to advance equity and access for all students, of all
backgrounds, levels and abilities, is a testament to her commitment to creating a truly
diverse and accepting world. Jennifer is a person who can be counted on and trusted - as
an intent listener, a wise counselor, an astute problem-solver, a compassionate confidante
and a deep thinker – she will bring excellence, honesty and integrity to you and your
school community. Jennifer’s creative energy, intellectual curiosity, compassionate
nature, intuitive abilities and collaborative skills, make her an excellent candidate as an
elementary or secondary English teacher in your school district.

For all of these reasons, I highly recommend Jennifer Zaffetti to your attention.

Respectfully,
Robin E. Hands, Ed.D.
Director of School-University Partnerships

Email: Robin.Hands@Uconn.edu
Cell phone: 413-478-3243
Neag School of Education: http://www.education.uconn.edu

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