Friday, September, 19, 2014
Thank you to all my parents for coming to the conferences and sharing. It was a pleasure meeting you all and learning about all my students. I look forward to a great year of partnership with you all. This will assist me in providing meaningful learning experiences for my students that are developmentally appropriate for each student so they are successful according to his/her needs and abilities.  

As promised I am posting the parent pamphlet for EYE. 

Early Years Evaluation – Teacher Assessment (EYE-TA)

The EYE-TA provides information about:

Awareness of Self and Environment
- a child's understanding of the world and his or her ability to make connections with home and community experiences.
Social Skills and Approaches to Learning
- a child’s attentiveness during classroom activities and his or her ability to interact with peers while respecting the classroom rules.
Cognitive Skills
- a child's basic math and pre-reading skills and his or her ability to solve problems.
Language and Communication
- a child's understanding of spoken language and his or her ability to express thoughts and feelings.
Physical Development
- Fine motor - a child's ability to perform small movements that require hand-eye coordination.
- Gross motor - a child's ability to perform large movements that involve arms, legs, and body.

Reporting
The EYE-TA provides both a classroom and individual child report. The reports show each of the developmental areas, along with examples describing each area, and a colour coded box illustrating the child’s results. There are three colour codes used: green, yellow, and red.
Colour codes defined:
Appropriate development Experiencing some difficulty Experiencing significant difficulty
I have my child’s report – now what?
Information from the EYE-TA is often used to identify children who may be having difficulty and who may need further support or evaluation. Teachers use the EYE-TA results as a starting point for discussions with parents or a multi-disciplinary team (e.g., a team that includes the parents, classroom teacher, school administration, and relevant specialists). EYE-TA results, along with other assessments, can help teachers to determine the type and amount of support required for each child to succeed in the classroom.

Overview

Learning to read is an important focus in the early grades (K-3). Children must ‘learn-to-read’ by grade 3 so that they can ‘read-to-learn’ in grade 4 and beyond. However, in Canada and the US about 25% of children have significant difficulty learning to read. When these children get to grade 4, they do not read fluently enough to understand what is being taught. There are many reasons children have trouble learning to read during the early grades and the impacts are negative; affecting both learning and social relationships during and beyond the school years.
Research has linked the importance of the successful development of early skills to improved school achievement. We can identify children in kindergarten who would most benefit from additional supports to be ready for formal academic learning. The EYE-TA will help us to better understand who these children are.
WHO: The EYE-TA is intended for children ages 4 to 6 years in kindergarten.
WHAT: The EYE-TA provides teachers with a checklist they can use to keep track of their observations and informal assessments of children during regular classroom activities. Teachers enter the information online and all data is encoded and stored with the highest security levels.

Features and Benefits of the EYE-TA
The main role of the EYE-TA is to help inform teaching decisions. Teachers have said:

• 􏰀  The EYE-TA provides a framework for assessing the deVviesliot:pmental strengths and areas for growth of children at the start of school.
  
• 􏰀  The skills assessed by the EYE-TA inform teaching in the classroom.
  
• 􏰀  The EYE-TA assesses five domains of early learning closely associated with children's readiness to learn at school.
  
• 􏰀  Online data entry gives teachers and schools immediate, multi-level reporting.
  

www.earlyyearsevaluation.com
Personal information is collected under the authority of the School Act, the Student Record Regulation and Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP). This information will be used to guide instructional programming decisions. It will be treated in accordance with the privacy protection provisions of the FOIP Act.
If you have any questions about the collection, its intended use or the EYE-TA, please contact:
Early Learning, Learning Services, Calgary Board of Education 403-817-7601

Teachers at the Calgary Board of Education use a developmental screening tool with all kindergarten children. The Early Years Evaluation Teacher Assessment (EYE-TA), developed by KSI Research International (2009) Inc., provides parents, teachers and schools with accurate and meaningful information on children’s early developmental skills.
The information gathered will help to support a positive transition to school for your child and will help teachers to design instruction and support strategies.

Please feel free to call or email me if you need any clarification regarding the EYE document or any other concerns. I will be more than happy to assist you.

                                                   
                                                              Thanks,
                                                             Mrs. Malik