Multimodal discourse analysis (MMDA) has been instrumental in the evolution of English curriculum and pedagogy. However, it is unusual for educators to direct the tools of multimodal inquiry to their own text productions. In the context of prioritising accessibility within the new Queensland Certificate of Education in Queensland, which has increased standardisation requirements and placed pressure on schools to prepare students for high-stakes assessments in Year 12, three English Heads of Department (HoDs) and two academics worked together to analyse samples of their Year 10 summative task designs. The aim was to 'make the familiar strange'. When they analysed the design of assessment task sheets, HoDs were able to identify barriers for students negotiating the reading pathway. Results demonstrate that task sheets have multiple demands within their composition that provide cues for how teachers and school leaders can design tasks that prioritise the interests of the learner.