Project Definition Document: Writing Revision

Client:
Shelley Wessels
Social Sciences Instructor, Silver Creek High School

MIST Team
Karen Currie, Project Manager/Facilitator
Jon Watts, Instructional Developer
Kelleth Chinn, Visual Design/Developer Instructional Designer
Anna Hild, Subject Matter Expert?
Brian Hill, Prototype Manager

Project Overview

Team 5 will create a training solution to address the writing needs of high school students
at Silver Creek, taught by Social Sciences Instructor Shelley Wessels. Part of an effective high
school education is the preparation of necessary skills that enable students to be successful in
future academic endeavors, as well as in the general workforce and society. The ability to
express oneself in writing is paramount to these organizational goals. The client has requested
an online, asynchronous training solution to assist students through independently planning and
revising their written work in a variety of content areas. Our training solution will be designed in
collaboration with another instructional design team. The instructional product will consist of
two main components, and several sub-components of each. The Wolfpack will develop a pre-
writing learning module addressing students’ use of grammar, spelling, formatting, and writing
strategies, while Team 5 will develop a post-writing learning module addressing self-review and
editing of these same concepts.
Our combined final training solution will be seamlessly integrated through a Weebly
website, and be independently navigable by our targeted learners. Product success will be
determined by client communication and student writing samples, following student use in the
coming school year. In addition, performance on embedded assessments and reaction surveys
will provide data as to the successful understanding, general usability, and learner reactions to
the learning solution.

Why Training?

Based on student writing samples and client communication, students are displaying a
lack of knowledge or awareness in their ability to express themselves through formal academic
writing. In addition, our client shared that students lack the beneficial habit of regularly
reviewing and revising their written work. As training addresses a gap in knowledge, skills, or
attitude, it is evident that the targeted learners will benefit from training on the subject.

Learners

The target audience for this training will include Silver Creek High School Students. The
students are enrolled in both Advanced Placement (AP) classes as well as non-AP classes. Many
of these students come from families that fall below the poverty line, are “first- or second-
generation Americans” and “speak English as a second language” (Project Description, 2018).
The school encourages them to work towards the goal of attending a four-year college or
university. The class has a chromebook cart to use to complete writing assignments, with access
to Google apps for education. Away from school some students have computers or chromebooks
available to them, while others rely on the use of their smartphones to continue the process.

Organizational Goals

As per Silver Creek High School’s website, their organizational mission is “to provide all
our students with equal access to a quality education in a safe, healthy, challenging, and caring
environment, empowering students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners who will
interact cooperatively as socially responsible citizens in a multicultural and technical world”
(Silver Creek High School, 2018). Part of fulfilling this mission, and especially to address
“empowering students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners,” involves mastering key
concepts of writing to express one’s ideas.

Learners’ Goals

1. Learners will be able to independently identify grammar, formatting, and content errors in
their written work.
2. Learners will be able to independently select the correct tools for editing that correspond with
their identified errors.
3. Learners will be able to independently utilize the editing tools provided in order to correct
their written errors.

Deliverables

The deliverables for this project will include student-driven asynchronous learning
modules used independently by the learners, without teacher assistance, as requested by the
client. Both Team 5 and the “Wolfpack” Teams’ products will be accessible through a Weebly
website. A variety of Google Apps for Education tools will be utilized, as students have access
through their district-assigned account. Examples may include an interactive, branching Google-
Slides slide deck, Powtoons instructional videos, or Hyperdoc.

Project Resources

Our point of contact for this project, Shelley Wessels, Social Science Teacher at Silver
Creek High School, located in San Jose, CA, will fill the role of our subject matter expert, as
well as Crystala Button. After having met through virtual conferencing, using Zoom, Shelley has
provided our team with a basic framework of the subject matter she would like to include in the
module to be produced.

Per our meeting with Ms. Wessels, it is clear that her students have access to
chromebooks during school hours. Some students may not have this same access to technology
off campus, at home. To complete this training, students should have access to a computer or
smartphone. The product to be produced will need to be compatible with a smart device.

Crystala Button will also serve as our subject matter expert for this project as she is a
veteran teacher with many years of supporting English language development in high school
students and is able to provide guidance to support our team of mostly elementary school
teachers. She has provided us with sample documents that have been used successfully in the
past for our review as well as answered questions for our team and given feedback on materials
as we create them.

Due to the difference in school setting and population of students served between SMEs,
we understand that these differences must be examined carefully and taken into consideration as
we develop our training and materials. California Common Core State Standards are used in both
settings, so the expectation of the work students is producing should be consistent.

Timeline

Week Date Milestone Comments

1 6/5/18 Project Definition

2 6/12/18 Objectives

3 6/19/18 Design document

4 6/26/18 Sample Draft

Material (storyboard
and deliverables)
5 7/3/18 Continue revising and
reviewing
deliverables

6 7/10/18 Testing and usability

7 7/17/18 Finalize integration

with Team Wolfpack

8 7/24/18 Final Project

Budget

We are expecting no cost for the development of the training. Students have access to
Google Apps for Education, Chromebooks at school, and smart-phones at home, which will
provide access to all the project components. Any images or videos will be created or used from
copyright-free sources.

Critical Success Factors

A crucial factor in this process will be communication and collaboration about tasks and
responsibilities between teammates during the development of the proposed project. This
includes: collaboration with the “Wolfpack” team also working with Ms. Wessels, a balanced
timeline, weekly check-ins, and expedient completion of each assigned task. It is also imperative
that each team member understands the client’s needs in developing and designing this program,
to ensure the creation of a training module that is both informative and engaging.
 References

Silver Creek High School. (2018). Retrieved from: https://schs.schoolloop.com/about

Wessels, Shelley. (2018). Silver creek high school: developing a self-editing instructional
program [Class handout]. School of Computing and Design, California State University
Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA