Merrie Blunk

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
610 E. UNIVERSITY AVE., #1600 ANN ARBOR, MI 48109-1259 (734) 615-7632 fax: (734) 615-7441 mblunk@umich.edu

April 4, 2013 To Whom It May Concern: Hannah Kreindler was a student in my Teaching Children Mathematics course, EDUC 411 in the fall of 2012. Hannah was also one of the teacher interns that Ive supervised as a Field Instructor for both the fall 2012 and winter 2013 semesters. As part of the math methods course, Hannah worked on, among other teaching practices, explaining mathematical ideas using accurate and appropriate mathematical language that is geared toward the learner, analyzing student work to uncover student thinking and possible misconceptions, and modeling and representing common algorithms of mathematical operations in ways that make clear the meaning of the steps. One of the major emphases of the course was for the teacher interns to learn how to plan for and lead a whole class mathematics discussion. This is often a difficult goal as many children are not used to listening to their peers and talking about mathematical ideas. However, participating in discussions provides a rich opportunity for students to share ideas and engage in reasoning about and explaining mathematics while using mathematical vocabulary- all important mathematical practices. As part of her course assignments, Hannah lead four whole class mathematics discussions in her kindergarten classroom. In the first two discussions, Hannah was provided with the discussion plan and the mathematical task to be discussed. In the final two discussions, Hannah chose the mathematical task, planned for the discussions, and chose and planned for a brief written assessment of student learning in addition to leading the discussion and implementing the assessment. As part of her lesson planning Hannah also developed explanations of important mathematical ideas relevant to the content of the discussion. After the lesson, she evaluated student responses to the assessment and created a performance record that facilitated her analysis of what students learned from the lesson. Because I was Hannahs Field Instructor in addition to being her course instructor, the discussion activities not only provided Hannah an opportunity to learn and practice important skills in teaching, they also provided me with opportunities to observe and learn about her as a student and as a teacher intern. In the final assignment for the course, Hannah planned and taught a lesson on making and analyzing a bar graph. Her lesson planning showed thoroughness and thoughtfulness with regard to both the students and the mathematics. In her lesson plan, Hannah carefully detailed series of questions designed to engage a wide range of the students in her classroom, including particular attention to ways to engage the students in her classroom whom she knew would need accommodations to learn and work productively. Her questions included a variety of ways to elicit student ideas, support students in listening to and responding to other students ideas and probes to follow up on anticipated student ideas. In the actual teaching of her lesson, Hannah used a variety of teaching moves to orchestrate the discussion and include a wide range of students in participating productively in the discussion. Throughout the course and in her current teaching, Hannahs lesson planning has been constantly thorough and well-considered in every subject area. I have had several conversations with Hannah as she

talked through a lesson, describing her decisions and the variety of considerations that played a part in her decision making. Although I have observed hours of Hannahs teaching in her classroom and as a student in the course, I have never seen her unprepared. She routinely was one of the first interns to complete an assignment and is always thinking ahead in her teaching. Another focus of the course was to help students develop a disposition towards reflecting on and improving their own teaching. Throughout the semester, Hannah has been very diligent in looking back at her teaching and considering how she might continue to improve her practice. Her reflections are insightful and focus on practical ways to improve. For example, in her first few lessons taught in her kindergarten last semester, the students did not behave as well for Hannah as they did for their regular classroom teacher. Hannah made it a point to talk with her mentor teachers and others to gather suggestions for what she might do. In each following lesson, Hannahs classroom management skills developed such that at this point the students respond to her just as their do to their regular teacher. I believe that one of Hannahs real strengths, in addition to her amazingly prompt and thorough preparation, is her commitment toward reflecting on and improving her practice a disposition that will support the ongoing development of her skills throughout her teaching career. In summary, through my interactions with Hannah, I have found her to be hard working, thoughtful and careful in her planning and instruction and strongly committed to the continual development of her teaching skills. Hannah has a wonderful classroom presence that the students respond well to- she is warm and friendly and yet completely in charge and the students find her approachable and helpful, though kindly firm at the same time. I believe Hannah to be well positioned to be a new teacher in her own classroom and I strongly recommend her for this position.

Merrie Blunk, PhD Instructor and Researcher