Dr. Bamba,

Your thoughts are interesting, as there appeared to be a desire to make a comparison between a hybrid, online, and some form of face-to-face instruction and the effectiveness of using a specific lesson plan modality. However, the distinction between these groups was unclear to me when you discussed the student interactions in the Student Motivation and Participation section. The time lines stated, seating arrangements, and other student interactions and activities were applied to some group, yet is was unclear which learning environments were involved. How were online student participation factors regulated and measured compared with the other groups? Were controlled groups used to measure differences in the effectiveness of the lesson planning modality used? Were outcome indicators different between the three groups, and did these differ significantly from other lesson planning methods applied? Were pre- and post-assessments used to measure or demonstrate effectiveness of the lesson plan?

I guess my thought is that instructional strategies need to be based in data, yet there is no data provided that support this lesson planning methodology is better than others.I appreciate the desire to make meaningful comparisons between various learning environments, and realize that more data is needed to address parity in instruction. Perhaps you have this information, yet, due to size limitations, extracted some of this data. I would be interested to see both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this research.

Respectfully,

Ronald R. Summerhill

Priscilla,

Thank you for sharing this manuscript. I appreciated the clarity of your writing. Your arguments were clear and easy to follow. I gravitated towards the practicality and innovation of the lesson plan, as well as the significance of examining the hybrid environment, which is becoming more and more common in university and college settings.

I have a few recommendations. First, many of the citations are from 2006 and older. More recent citations on learning and motivational theory would be useful, particularly because research in this area has increased. The manuscript also wavers between a research study and a practical article on teaching. I recommend choosing one avenue and making that avenue clearer to the reader. For instance, the "procedures" section, amongst other parts of the manuscript, focus on the research involved, but most of the manuscript involves practical, useful strategies. Personally, I suggest re-focusing the manuscript towards a practioner's stance -- one rooted in relevant, timely research -- rather than a research stance.

Thank you again for sharing your manuscript. The idea is innovative, practical, and useful.

Best,

Meredith DeCosta

Hi Priscilla. I am a big fan of the Madeline Hunter lesson plan using the Elements of Effective Instruction. This is the lesson plan that I recommended to my teachers when I was an Instructional Coach. You have some great practical ideas in this article. This is a good review of literature as well as some practical experience.

You have used many "older" references. You may want to find some more current research to support your claims. Also, I noticed that some APA errors are present. In 6th Edition APA, citations with 2 authors use an ampersand (&) instead of the word and. Also, there are new rules concerning formatting of headings.

Overall, I feel that this introduces and supports some very practical applications that can be useful to all of us as teachers. Thank you for your efforts!

Rick

Hello Priscilla,

I enjoyed reading your work. I can see you hope to show how the lesson you describe exemplifies the attributes of all the pedagogical theories and learning models you admire. Although I'm sure you feel that the connections between the lesson you describe so carefully and the pedagogies you review should be apparent to your readers, there is something in the organization of your work that did not allow a full enough exploration of the ways your really fun, multi-dimensional lesson(s) satisfied the best attributes of the models you review. If your intention is to show how your string of lessons shows the successful practice of the models, I would ask you to consider stating that plainly and often. I think there is an opportunity here for you to express even more insights about how and why the lesson worked according to plan. There is also an opportunity to explore how the student population you describe was especially benefitted by the experience. I love these active learning lessons for building an essay with the student population your describe. I find your methods and your justification inspiring. I can hardly wait to try this out myself!

Renee

Hi, Priscilla. 

I really enjoyed reading your article.  It is obvious you are passionate about your work and this lesson. I gravitated toward the way this lesson works for diverse student populations in multimodal environments. 

As others have previously mentioned, I would be interested in seeing what more current research indicates about these ideas.  It would also be interesting to see how this lesson might apply to strictly  face-to-face classrooms and online classrooms.  Having said that, though, that may be a topic for a future publication.  

Nice work!

Victoria

Ron,

Thank you very much for your helpful feedback. Yes, data was not included that would have clarified some of the questions you had, and, yes, it was excluded for brevity's sake. Since the research portions were not present, I plan to rewrite the manuscript as Meredith suggested, focusing more on the practitioner's use of the article and the information it conveys.

I see, too, that clarity is needed to show that the groups were not separate class groups but all a part of the same class. The project was in the experimental stage as NOVA was implementing the hybrid and online course. The students in this particular class were in a F2F mode for the first half of the semester with the classes meeting every week F2F, and we incorporated an online component for certain parts of those first few weeks of lessons, partially to ensure the student had a level of comfort operating in the online environment. The last half of the semester, the classes were conducted in an online capacity, and some of the groups went on to meet F2F on their own. The post-assessment involved a comparison of success rates with the same sort of class that was conducted either solely in an online environment or solely in a F2F fashion. The results were impressive in that this hybrid course indicated better comprehension in exit exams as well as better understanding of the process and product by the students. In other words, more support for a hybrid course was the result.

Again, thank you for your feedback.

Priscilla

Meredith,

Yes, I quite agree that updating the citations would be a necessary yet simple action. I will most certainly locate and use some of the clearly advanced and more recent sources. Thank you for that reminder. I will rewrite the manuscript to focus more on the practitioner's view and use, too. I agree that the writing would be clearer and better put to that purpose.

As always, thank you for all the guidance you provide.

Sincerely,

Priscilla

Rick,

Thanks! Yes, Madeline Hunter's planning techniques are the ones I have always found best, too. Thank you also for pointing out that more updated sources and citations would be better. I am in the process of gathering and incorporating them into the manuscript, and I am updating to ensure I adhere to the 6^th edition of APA, too. Thank you for your useful feedback. I will be sure to use the suggestions!

Priscilla

Renee,

Thank you very much for your feedback! Yes, the connections were not there because I had cut out too much without adding in needed explanation of the data and the results. Yes, this was a writing that reflected on the success of a class conducted as a hybrid model class seteup that was a previous purely F2F model. I am in the process of rewriting and updating the material and rewriting the focus on the practitioner's use and view, as suggested by Meredith. Thank you again for your positive support and commentary!

Priscilla

Victoria,

Thank you very much for your comments! Yes, a diverse population, especially the non-native English speaker, has long been my passion. I am in the process of revising this manuscript to fit more into the practitioner's use as well as updating the citations.

I am also considering how I might implement a study I completed on the non-native English speaker's unique perspective and challenges when entering the college -level classroom. While not unexpected, the results of the correlational study were substantial support for a need to ensure support for that growing population in the modern college classroom.

Thank you again for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Priscilla

Dr. Bamba,

Thanks for your paper. I think your commitment to your students and your teaching practice is evident in the narrative. Using M. Hunter is a solid technique and describing the steps towards toward active learning experiences for students is an important reminder to scholars the amount of time and effort that goes into constructing a lesson plan. However, I think the narrative is too focused on the lesson plan itself and needs to expand its discussion on how active learning has an impact. For me, the paper ends abruptly by going into the Conclusion section too quickly.

Chuck,

Thanks for your feedback. I agree with your comment about needs to expand on how active learning has an impact and will look into expanding in that area as I update and insert more recent sources pertinent to this practice.

Best,

Priscilla