It is that time of year when we recruit educators to participate in the Item Writing Course for ACCESS for ELLs®. This is an online, graduate level course through which teachers delve more deeply into the WIDA Standards, learn about the construction of large scale language assessments, learn to craft test folders and items, and contribute real classroom-based items for ACCESS. For this work, teachers receive 2 graduate credits from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, transferable to any institution.

This year we are encouraging teachers to sign up as pairs--a content/general education teacher and an ESL/bilingual teacher, preferably from the same school--so that we have the benefit of both perspectives, and the teachers have the benefit of working with a partner. While priority will be given to pairs or teams, we will also accept individual applicants.

From past courses, participants have reported that the course:

Increased their understanding and use of the WIDA standards,
Gave them a greater perspective on question asking and answering with ELL students,
Helped them create classroom assessment for their own students,
Enhanced their ability to communicate with other teachers about the needs of ELL students
Provided a valuable forum in which to share ideas on ELL instruction with other participants.

As in years past, representatives at state departments of education or public instruction are collecting applications and then nominating qualified educators by forwarding their applications to the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), who runs the course.

Applications are due by December 7th. CAL will review the applications of all nominated educators that are received by the deadline, and nominees will receive a response by December 15th.

For more information download these documents.

Course Announcement
Course Computer Requirements
Item Writing Course Application