May 9, 2020

To Whom it May Concern,

It is without hesitation that I recommend Riva Lencer as a teacher at your school. Last fall, I began my
work as the literacy specialist at Mason-Rice Elementary School in Newton, and I have worked closely with
Riva throughout the 2019-2020 school year. From the start, I was impressed by the quality of Riva’s teaching,
her passion and hard work, and the clarity with which she is able to articulate her thinking and goals.

Riva is passionate about literacy instruction. Throughout the year, despite a very busy schedule, she has
reached out to me as a thinking partner on how to support the wide range of learners in her classroom. Riva is a
model for how to offer differentiated instruction. Because she has many students with low reading and writing
skills this year, she has prioritized small group instruction and intervention. She meets with a small group to
work on decoding and spelling several times per week. She has guided reading groups for students who are
struggling with comprehension. She meets with a reading fluency group and offers coaching with clear, specific
strategies. This kind of strategy group instruction and intervention work is not common in fifth grade
classrooms because of the intense demands of the curriculum, but Riva responds to the students in front of her
and adjusts her teaching accordingly.

One of the most impressive things I’ve seen Riva take on this year is decoding work. Using formal and
informal data, she identified four students in her class who were struggling with decoding multisyllabic words.
Riva reached out to me for ideas on how to intervene. I shared a syllable division workbook which she
appreciated, but she was also looking for some broader strategies that students could use more immediately. I
shared a syllable division strategy video that I found on readingrockets.org. Riva watched the video, then
skillfully made a plan for how to use the strategies with her students. After a couple of weeks, her students had
already made impressive gains reading three and four syllable words. Riva is the kind of educator who can take
a resource, independently make a plan, and then put it into practice.

Furthermore, I watched Riva support her fifth grade colleagues as they became interested in her guided
reading and spelling instruction work this year. During grade level meetings, Riva modeled how she planned
and structured her groups, and then she invited teachers in to observe her lessons. The result was that this kind
of small group literacy instruction improved across the grade.

Finally, Riva’s strengths as a teacher are apparent the minute you step into her classroom. Her lessons
are clear and engaging. She teaches students what they need to know to become better, deeper, more
sophisticated readers and writers. If students struggle with a lesson, then she revisits the concept with more
scaffolding. An air of serious engagement permeates her classroom.

Riva works tirelessly as a teacher. She has read voluminously about literacy instruction because she
wants to learn about the newest thinking and because it stimulates her own deep thinking about what helps
students become better readers and writers. Riva is a passionate and skilled teacher. She would be an asset to
any school. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at
lindstromj@newton.k12.ma.us​.
Sincerely,

Jennifer Lindstrom
Literacy Specialist
Mason-Rice Elementary