College of Education and Human Services

Department of Early Childhood,

Elementary and Literary Education
Voice: 973-655-5407
Fax: 973-655-7043

Monday, Nov. 9, 2009

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

It is my absolute pleasure to write a letter of recommendation for Mr. Benjamin Brown in support of
his application for a position within your school. I have known Mr. Brown for almost two years now;
we first met in my graduate class, READ 503: Literature for Adolescents. My classes are highly
interactive and afford time for me to speak with students individually on a regular basis. Mr. Brown
and I keep in regular contact with respect to our mutual interest in discussing developments in popular
youth culture, digital media, and the implications of both for English teaching in middle and high
schools. I also am known internationally for my own research work in the field of literacy education.
As such, I feel well-qualified to comment on his abilities and potential as an English teacher.

Mr. Brown has continued to keep me up to date with his ongoing teaching innovations and self-
directed professional development. This attention to maximizing student learning by means of
developing innovative resources and making efficacious use of online technologies began even during
his student teaching. While student teaching, Mr. Brown established an innovative blog used to
support his English classes (see http://mrbrownsblog.wordpress.com). This included the fresh and
clever use of video retellings to summaries important texts, links to relevant additional reading for
students, and posting homework documents to facilitate student completion of set tasks. Since then,
Mr. Brown has gone on to develop and successfully implement a Grade 8 curriculum unit focused on
digital storytelling. Mr. Brown’s account of this carefully planned unit is available here
(http://mrbrownsdigitalstories.wikispaces.com/). The depth and breadth of materials he has posted to
this wiki to share with other educators is not only impressive, but speaks directly to his
incontrovertible commitment to teaching excellence. I have shared this wiki resource with my
colleagues at Montclair State University, and blogged about it (I have an international audience for my
blog), because it’s an excellent example of how a teacher an take a particular approach to writing—
one that is typically conducted in after-school settings due to its demands on time and resources—and
shape it to a particular teaching and learning context. This is the hallmark of a savvy and thoughtful
teacher.

I was fortunate enough to see a showcase of the final digital stories created by Mr. Brown’s students,
and was struck by the quality of the narratives underpinning each video. Clearly, Mr. Brown had
impressed on his students the importance of having a strongly written script to drive their videos. This
close link between conventional writing and new approaches to meaning-making via digital
technologies is precisely the kind of work valued by schools and the literacy education community in

MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSY 07043 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUATION

general. Mr. Brown is clearly preparing his students for a world in which high quality writing and
facility with digital modes of expression is increasingly a component of adult work lives.

Based on my evaluation of Mr. Brown’s performance within my course, and my experience as a

teacher educator spanning 15 years and four countries, he demonstrates exceptional understanding of
the educative process and is clearly an outstanding teacher. Mr. Brown has an excellent grasp of the
complexities facing English teachers in current times. You will find him a well-informed, thoughtful
teacher who will work untiringly to maximize positive and productive education outcomes for all of
his students. He is one of the very few English teachers I know who actually practices and hones his
craft by spending time regularly writing narrative and other kinds of texts, and exploring the
possibilities of multiple interpretations of both canonical and contemporary literature in his life outside
school.

Mr. Brown unquestionably demonstrates key qualities valued in teachers everywhere; he is adept,
flexible, innovative, smart, quick thinking and highly reliable, to name a few. His blog and wiki are
outstanding examples of how teachers can used Web 2.0 collaborative services like blogs, YouTube,
and the like, to extend and enhance student learning beyond classroom walls. Mr. Brown clearly
understands youth culture and is able to leverage it in impressive ways to help students to access,
understand and enjoy classic world literature. Students’ positive comments on, and use of, the blog
stand as strong testimony to the success of this supplement to in-class learning.

In addition, Mr. Brown evinces an excellent degree of content knowledge with respect to teaching
English. Independent school students will benefit from his commitment to supporting student learning
in carefully scaffolded and creative ways, and his insistence on deep engagement with content and
interpretive analysis.

Ben is not short of energy or enthusiasm and will inject a good deal of warmth, humor, and positive
collegiality into any school in which he works. In short, Mr. Brown is a self-motivated, well-informed
and dynamic professional who goes above and beyond the requirements of any task set him.

I have no hesitations whatsoever in recommending Benjamin Brown as a teacher within your school.
He has my highest, unreserved recommendation.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Michele Knobel, PhD

Co-ordinator, Graduate Literacy Programs

MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSY 07043 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUATION