3 Lesson Ideas For WIDA ACCESS Testing Season

Written by Cynthia from All About ELD

January 12, 2025

WIDA Access testing season can be overwhelming and feel a little crazy with all the schedule changes. Some of us might be testing the whole day, while others might be testing in the morning and teaching groups in the afternoon. It all depends on your testing schedule. Some years, I’ve had time to meet with one or two groups a day. It can be tough to plan lessons for just 20 minutes a week when you don’t know if you will see the same group again in the next few days or if you might be covering someone unexpectedly.

So, here I have three fun, engaging lesson ideas you can have ready as a back-up plan for those random times during WIDA testing season. At the end of this post, I've posted helpful links related to these 3 ideas. Don't feel like reading? Listen to Episode 11 of 5 Minute ELD.

Lesson Idea 1: Retelling or Summarizing Stories

Grab a fun book or a short film from YouTube and have your students work on retelling, or summarizing the story. This lesson is perfect for reviewing characters, setting, story elements, and more. Think of the skills your students need to practice, their English proficiency level, and any specific concepts they need to revisit. For example, Do you want them to retell the story from beginning to end, do you want them to do that plus elaborate by adding details? Do you want them to describe a character or compare characters? Maybe adding dialog or quotes? You might even ask them to do a debate. There are many options.

Lesson Idea 2: Reviewing Math Concepts

Students always benefit from reviewing math concepts. Look at the pacing guides of grade level or levels you support and check which math concepts they have learned so far and might be good to review with your students. Remember to focus on the language of math when doing these lessons. If you teach multiple grade levels, look for overlapping concepts or topics. A concept that students always need more practice with is solving math problems. Work on understanding the story behind the problem, break it up into parts, talk about what operation they need to solve the problem and if it is a single step or multiple step problem. Focusing on math is a great way to reinforce math and language skills.

Lesson Idea 3: Short Research Projects

Research projects are valuable at all grade levels. Students often need more practice with researching, citing sources, paraphrasing, and organizing their findings.

Try a small, open-ended project where students research a topic like their home country, favorite animal, or any subject that interests them. The goal is to create a product they can share with the group later. You could even revisit the project after the WIDA testing season to expand or refine it.

Remember to provide supports like sentence stems, visuals, word banks, graphic organizers, and, most importantly, opportunities for students to speak and collaborate. What types of lessons do you teach during WIDA ACCESS season?

Useful Links:

Lesson Examples:

⁠Research Lesson⁠

⁠Retelling Story Lesson⁠

⁠Math vocabulary ELD lesson⁠

⁠Math ELD lesson 2⁠

⁠Short Film Lesson⁠

YouTube Links to Short Stories

⁠Snack Attack⁠

⁠Coin Operated⁠

⁠Caminades 1⁠ (This one has a series of episodes)

⁠Trouble in Paradise⁠