Winter is almost here, which means that ACCESS testing is coming up soon for students in ESL! We have been busy preparing our students for this annual WIDA test, hoping that they will remember anything once they return from winter break. In our state, the testing window opens as soon as we return in January!

Here are some of the things that we are doing to prepare our school and students for the ACCESS test:

1. Practice the test format with the free WIDA sample items

WIDA generously provides multiple sample items to familiarize students with the test format! There is even a test demo site where you can log in to something that looks very similar to the computerized ACCESS test, so you can help your students get more comfortable with it before test day. Go here to check out all of the resources available to you– there is something for every grade level cluster and tier!

2. Practice speaking into a computer

We know that language output (speaking, writing) is typically slower to progress than receptive language (listening, reading), but many students score lower on the ACCESS speaking test because they are just. so. nervous. to talk into the computer. Some especially hate to talk into a headset, if they aren’t used to wearing one. So we have been working hard on normalizing this for our students! Every couple of weeks, I give my students a speaking task that they must respond to by recording their voice and adding the audio to a Google Slide. 

I shared the slide that I use with my students as a freebie last month to everyone on my e-mail list. If you want to get ESL-related freebies sprinkled in your inbox, go ahead and sign up for my newsletter here!

3. Goal setting

Closer to the testing window, I meet with my students to engage in data review and goal setting for ACCESS. I feel that this creates so much more buy-in for taking the test, because students are aware of their strengths/weaknesses and can identify ways to improve! Together we look at their scores from last year’s test and make goals for how they will improve in each domain for the next test. 

Then, we strategize by choosing some key moves that they could try in order to improve in their lowest language domain.

I created these goal setting sheets just for my students– you can grab them here!

4. Preparing for teacher absence

My least favorite part about ACCESS testing is putting a pause on my teaching in order to proctor the test. We have about 250 multilingual learners to test this year in K-5, and between 5 ESL teachers it should take us more than a couple of weeks to administer all four domains. One of the ways we’ve been preparing for this absence is by signing our newcomers up for Lexia English and unit planning with our co-teachers in advance, adding all the scaffolds our students will need for the next few weeks. I would love to hear how other ESL teachers are preparing to support their students during the testing window!

Those are some steps I’m taking to prepare for the ACCESS test– what are you doing? What questions do you have? Let me know!