Using the Early Years Evaluation
Teacher Assessment (EYE-TA)
to Support Early Literacy Development
Revised August 2012
1. What does recent research tell us about early literacy
development?
Learning to read is the critical challenge of the primary grades. Children must learn to read by grade
three so that they can read to learn in grade four and beyond. However, twenty-five percent of children
encounter significant difficulty learning to read, and by fourth grade, approximately forty percent do
not read well or fluently enough to easily grasp curricular concepts. Although there are many reasons
children do not learn to read well during the primary grades, the consequences are uniformly negative – they affect academic and social functioning, both during and beyond the school years.
Teachers and researchers have worked together to determine how we can best assist students who
encounter difficulty in learning to read. Their efforts show that:
• the foundational skills for learning to read involve multiple domains;
• these skills begin to develop long before children
enter school;
• children enter school with diverse levels of readiness skills;
• children with weak readiness skills encounter
more difficulty learning to read;
• children who are not ready to read can be identified in kindergarten;
• most reading difficulties can be prevented with
excellent classroom instruction, early
identification, and appropriate intervention.
In her 2003 book, Unlocking Literacy, Martha Henry
describes the skills and behaviors that make a
child ‘ready to read’. These skills cut across many
domains of early learning, and include: listening,
focusing attention, using oral language, developing phonological awareness, acquiring information,
having the desire to read and write, and acquiring
print-related knowledge. Although children come to
school with diverse reading readiness skills, the first
few years of school are crucial because:
• children who do not learn to read during the primary grades may never read well;
• the instructional environment of the classroom has a unique impact on literacy learning over and
above the influence of home and preschool experience.
2. How can the EYE-TA support efforts to teach young children
to read?
To teach students to read early and well, classroom teachers must determine students’ competency
levels across multiple domains of early learning. Research suggests that classroom-based assessment
positively affects student outcomes when it is frequent, formative, and instructionally relevant. The
EYE-TA provides a systematic framework teachers can use during the first few months of school to
structure their frequent observations and informal assessments. It assesses the five domains of early
learning closely associated with readiness to learn at school and readiness to learn to read.
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Domain A - Awareness of Self and Environment
Domain B - Social Skills and Approaches to Learning
Domain C - Cognitive Skills
Domain D - Language and Communication
Domain E - Physical Development
The skills assessed by the EYE-TA are instructionally relevant. Drawing on recent research, the
EYE-TA assesses two types of skills crucial to literacy development:
• ‘inside-out’ skills - knowledge of features of the printed word such as naming alphabet letters
or identifying beginning consonant sounds; and,
• ‘outside-in’ skills – higher order contextual knowledge, including factors such as oral language
development, general knowledge, awareness of self and environment, and social comprehension.
The EYE-TA assists teachers by providing formative, instructionally relevant information and by
providing it immediately. Once scores are submitted on-line, the teacher immediately receives two
reports:
• an individual child report with easily interpretable colour-coded scores and,
• a classroom level report showing the overall class results and those most vulnerable, at a glance.
EYE-TA results can be used in combination with other teacher assessments to:
• identify students who are encountering difficulty; and,
• indicate the type and amount of support required for individual students and for the entire class.
3. What does each EYE-TA domain assess? Why is it important?
How can teachers use the information to support early
literacy learning?
The following information describes what is assessed in each
domain and its relevance to early school success. Suggestions are
also included to support literacy learning for students who are experiencing difficulty in one or more domains. These strategies are
offered as examples of activities teachers can use to provide this
extra support. They will be most effective when they are adapted
to: a) meet students’ identified learning needs; and b) reflect the
cultural and language backgrounds of students and their families.
There is some overlap among items in domains A, C, and D
(Awareness of Self and Environment; Cognitive Skills;
and, Language and Communication). Suggestions to support
literacy learning are provided here by domain. However, given
the interrelatedness of the skills in those three domains, these
suggestions may be used interchangeably across those domains.
EYE-TA reports also include scores for domains B (Social Skills and Approaches to
Learning) and E (Physical Development). Hence, the domain descriptions and suggestions in this
section will be organized as follows:
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Domain A – Awareness of Self and Environment
Domain C – Cognitive Skills
Domain D – Language and Communication
Domain E – Physical Development
Domain B – Social Skills and Approaches to Learning
Domain A: Awareness of Self and Environment
What is it? This domain refers to:
• things the child has noticed and thought about;
• the child’s working knowledge of the world and how it works;
• the set of concepts formed as a result of prior learning opportunities in the home and
community.
Why is it important? This domain is important because ‘awareness of self and the environment’ is
the lens through which all future information is filtered. It influences what children will notice and
think about, and how they will organize new information gleaned from future learning experiences.
How can teachers use the information to support
early literacy learning?
The following suggestions illustrate some of the types of
activities that can be used to increase students’ awareness
of self and the environment. Teachers may already use
many of those strategies, and may have others they feel are
more appropriate to their class.
Play Knowledge Games.
Candy Land Format. Create a game board with a starting
and ending point like a Candy Land game board. Students
take turns rolling dice. When they land on a space, they
pick up the card for that space, and do what is required.
Depending on the areas of identified weakness, they could
be asked to: name the picture; tell how the pictured object
is used or what the community worker does; tell a word
that means the opposite; tell when the activity occurs:
morning, afternoon, or night, etc.
Trivial Pursuit. Use a Trivial Pursuit game board but create different questions in 6 categories rel-
evant to your students. Assign each category a different colour. Base questions on classroom stories
and activities. Use the comprehension questioning strategy, 5W’s and 1H - who, what, where, when,
why, and how. Questions could also be based on areas of identified weakness such as limited knowledge of categorical and relational terms, or unfamiliarity with names of animals in story books.
Learn More about the World.
Read conceptually rich fiction and non-fiction books. Talk about things and places that are unfamiliar to them. Do ‘hands-on’ activities related to those new topics.
Learn More Words.
In addition to introducing new words, broaden students’ understanding of known words. During instruction and conversation, use rich vocabulary - descriptors, category names, relational terms. Talk
about meanings of words as they come up in conversation or in texts. Talk about words that have
more than one meaning. For example, ‘the word, bank, can mean the place where people save their
money, or it can mean land along the river – the river bank’.
Read the Room or Read the Book.
Label objects (in the room, in picture books), and assign a partner (could be an older or more
competent student, a volunteer, or program assistant). One person points to the label and the other
‘reads’ the name of the object.
Read, Re-read, Read Again – and Query (R3Q).
During the course of a day, designate someone to read the same non-fiction passage to the child or
small group at least 3 times. After the last reading, ask questions to elicit information about the passage. This could be done with individual children or in small groups (teams).
Domain C: Cognitive Skills
What is it? This domain refers to:
• pre-academic skills that are commonly included in definitions of ‘readiness to learn at school’;
• foundational literacy skills such as naming letters and knowing letter-sound relationships;
• foundational numeracy skills such as counting and matching numerals with sets of objects.
Why is it important?
These pre-academic skills are important because children who
enter school with well-developed readiness skills make a more
successful transition to school and achieve better academically. Early literacy research shows that kindergarten students’
‘inside-out’ skills are strong predictors of their ability to read in
grades one and two. Inside-out skills refer to students’ knowledge of features inside the printed word such as the ability to
name alphabet letters or identify beginning consonant sounds.
How can teachers use the information to support early
literacy learning?
The following suggestions illustrate some of the types of
activities that can be used to improve cognitive skills associated
with early reading success. Teachers may already use many of
those strategies, and may have others they feel are more appropriate to their class.
Teach Word Sense.
Play with words. For example, take rhymes they know, be silly, and improvise together. Change
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to “Tickle, Tickle Little Pickle”. Change a rhyme to a non-rhyming
word and see who notices. Change “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear; Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair” to “Fuzzy
Wuzzy was a bear; Fuzzy Wuzzy had no friends.”
Teach Book Sense
Read interesting and conceptually rich stories.
Although children from print-rich environments
may already understand concepts of print and
have good book sense, many children from disadvantaged home literacy environments will benefit
from a more directed orientation to print. When
reading stories and working with authentic texts,
build upon concepts such as:
Book Layout – we read the book from front to
back; the book has a cover and title; when reading a book, hold it right side up, open it from the
front.
Read the Print, not the Pictures – the student should be able to point to the part we read, follow
along as we read.
Direction of Print on the Page – print runs from left to right, returns to the left, and goes line by line
from the page top to bottom. Child should show where we begin reading, where we go after that,
etc.
Knowledge of Book Terms – the student should be able to:
• point to show understanding of these terms with respect to text on the page: top, bottom, beginning, end, first, last;
• demonstrate understanding of the terms, “word” and “letter” by pointing to them in books.
Upper and Lowercase Letters – the student should be able to point to the lowercase equivalent of
uppercase letters.
Punctuation – the student should know the functional meaning of
basic punctuation in books:
period means we stop, question mark means we are asking a question, and exclamation mark means
something is exciting or very important.
Play with Name Sounds.
Use shakers or rhythm sticks to tap out syllables in students’ names. Read rhyming books such as I
Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Sing rhyming songs such as Down by the Bay.
Play Rhyme Cube.
Read and practice nursery and jump rope rhymes until many students know at least 6 from memory.
Make a Rhyme Cube – a cube-shaped box with a picture taped on each side indicating a rhyme they
know. Play rhyme cube with a small group – each student turns the cube to the picture of the rhyme he/she
knows, and recites it for the group.
Attend to Words.
Explore sound-symbol relationships in a meaningful
context. For example, teach a simple song. Practice until
students sing it from memory. Then write the words on
chart paper. Sing the words together, pointing out the
words as they sing. Highlight recurring words or phrases.
Play Word Games.
To practice beginning or ending consonants, play ‘camping trip’ or ‘shopping trip’. Each student names one
thing he would take on a camping trip or buy on a shopping trip. The next student says the words spoken by
previous students and names a new thing to buy or take
camping. The thing named could begin or end with the
same consonant. Example: Same Beginning Consonant:
food shopping trip: jam, juice, jelly, etc.
Domain D: Language and Communication
What is it? This domain refers to:
• oral receptive language – listening to and understanding instructions, discussions, and stories;
• oral expressive language – speaking and communicating - being understood by others;
• story sense – ability to understand and tell stories, or describe events.
Why is it important?
Children with good receptive language are better able to understand the language of school, to
follow classroom instructions and discussions, and to learn to read. Children with a good sense of
story have basic narrative concepts and an understanding of story structure. These children bring
‘outside-in skills’ to the learning process – research shows that this higher order contextual knowledge helps them to derive meaning from print and to understand what they read.
Children who communicate well find it easier to participate in classroom discussions and activities,
and to form relationships with teachers and classmates. Research suggests that relationships formed
in kindergarten are remarkably stable throughout elementary school, and that positive social relationships are associated with better academic outcomes.
How can teachers use the information to support early literacy learning?
In addition to providing a rich verbal environment, and including lots of opportunities for oral language development, teachers may incorporate some of the following suggestions to help struggling
students improve their listening, communication skills, and story sense. Teachers may already use
many of those strategies, and may have others they feel are more appropriate to their class.
Tell Magic Word Stories.
Tell students the ‘magic word’ e.g. cupcake. Then tell them you are going to tell or make up a story
with the magic word in it, and they should clap every time they hear the magic word. Begin telling
the story:
“Last night, I went to a hockey game right after school. I was really hungry and wanted a
hamburger, but the canteen was closed. Then I saw a table with people selling food. They
had cupcakes in a plastic container. I asked if they had sandwiches, but the woman said,
“we only have cupcakes”……”
Later, the student can give a magic word and ask you to make up a story containing that word, or the
student can use the word to tell the story while others listen for the word.
Use the CROWD Technique.
CROWD is the acronym for:
Completion, Recall, Open-ended responses, Wh-prompts, and, Distancing.
The following examples of the CROWD technique are based on the much loved children’s book,
Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
• Completion: read a line from the story, omitting a word.
Completion Example: “I see a yellow ___ looking at me”
• Recall: Ask about things that happened in the book.
Recall Example: “What animals did Brown Bear see?”
• Open-ended prompts: Open to a page of the story, and ask the child to tell what is happening in
his/her own words.
• Wh-prompts: Ask Wh-questions (who, what, where, when).
Wh-prompts Example: “Who will Brown Bear see next?”
• Distancing: Help students to relate the book to lived experience. Ask questions relating the story
pictures and content to their lives.
Distancing Example: “Do you remember the yellow duck we saw at the farm? Was it bigger than
this yellow duck?”
Remember, Move, Improvise.
Practice poems with supporting gestures. Have children recite the poems complete with the movements associated with each line. Once they know the poem and associated movements, improvise.
Ask them to change the words, to provide other movements, to write new poems.
Example:
My ears can hear you say good-bye. My nose can smell the apple pie.
My tongue can taste strawberry jelly. My hands can rub my happy belly.
My eyes can see the baby smile When Mama holds her little child. And every day, I do quite well Because I see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. (Cup ear to listen)
(Touch nose)
(Wiggle tongue)
(Rub belly)
(Cup hands beside eyes)
(Mime holding a baby)
(Pat chest with both hands)
(Point to body part for each sense)
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Use Wordless Books.
Find books that have great pictures and no text. Invite students to make up their own stories about
the pictures. You might need to start the story for some students, and gradually decrease the amount
of support. Students can also illustrate their stories, dictate a line for the teacher to print on each
drawing, and take these stories home to read.
Write Sequels.
Work with small groups of students to write Part 2 of their favorite stories. Ask questions, record
what they say, ask more questions to clarify responses, and record that information. Illustrate the sequel. Students can work in teams to tell Part 1 of the story, and to then use the pictures to tell their
sequel, Part 2, to other students, and to their parents.
Play Games to Expand Vocabulary and Increase Comprehension.
Fishing Pond. Make fish-shaped cards
with words or questions on the front
and magnets on the back. Put them in a
wide shallow plastic bowl or ‘fish pond’.
Using fishing poles with magnets on
them, students can pick up a card, and
either read the word or answer the
question on the card. If they know the
word or can answer the question, they
keep the card. This can be a competition and the student with the most fish
wins. This activity can be used to practice sight words, to answer knowledge
questions related to classroom books or
activities, or as a check on story comprehension.
Scavenger Hunt. Have students work in small teams. Teams search defined areas of
the room for
a list of objects. To practice vocabulary, students may be required to find the object named on the
card, or the object described by a sentence on the card, e.g. “We use this to cut.” The cards can also
be theme focused, e.g. color words – “Find something blue”.
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Domain E: Physical Development
What
is it? Items in this domain assess:
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• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
Why is it important?
Students’ motor skills, coordination, energy
level, and physical health affect their ability
to successfully participate in a wide range of
school experiences that foster early learning.
These experiences transcend domains. They
may be social (playing games at recess), or
academic (having adequate fine motor skills
to print, draw, and cut with scissors).
How can teachers use the information to support early literacy learning?
The following suggestions are intended for use with students who just need some additional experience with fine motor tasks. To assist students with gross motor difficulties, we recommend consultation with the school’s physical education teacher. The suggestions below are not intended as a
remedial program for students with severe motor difficulties or for those with diagnosed medical
conditions – addressing the needs of those students will involve medical referral and ongoing consultation with appropriate specialists.
Warm Up to Write.
Physically stretch, wiggle fingers – do these warm-ups to song or chant.
Use the ‘Mailman Thumb’.
To increase finger mobility and dexterity, practice spreading the fingers and touching the thumb to
each finger tip. Put a small face sticker or draw eyes and a smile on each finger tip. Help the ‘mailman thumb’ to deliver a letter to each finger by touching each finger tip. Practice picking up small
objects just as the mailman picks up each letter.
Outline, Cut, and Paste.
Select commercially available kindergarten books, catalogues with heavier paper, or teacher-drawn
shapes on heavy construction paper. Choose the object to cut – initially this might be restricted to
simple geometric shapes such as a circle or square. Cut the object away from the rest of the page
and outline the picture with heavy marker lines. Initially, the outlining could be a black triangle or
circle around the object. As cutting skills improve, outline the object itself. Gradually fade support and increase the complexity of the shape to be cut: reduce the size of the marker lines; have
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the student outline the object with crayon before cutting, etc. Once objects are cut, paste them in a
scrapbook or on a large sheet of newsprint. This fine motor activity can be connected to classroom
stories or themes e.g. a scrapbook of objects organized by color can be done while reading Brown
Bear, Brown Bear.
Talk and Draw.
Draw a familiar object for the child
using simple shapes. For example,
draw a house using a triangle for
the roof, a square for the rest of the
house, and a rectangle for the door.
Let the student see you making the
shapes. Say what you are doing as
you draw each piece. Then, ask the
student to copy - use verbal cues
and questions to guide the drawing.
Gradually fade the cues to encourage the student to draw independently.
Help with Pencil Grasp.
Use triangle grips, sponge cushion
grips that slide over a pencil, or a
larger pencil to relax the grip.
Decrease Physical Resistance of Writing Materials.
Try felt tip markers, erasable pens, large pencils with soft lead, dry-erase boards with erasable colored pens.
Teach Finger Spacing.
If the student has difficulty spacing print, teach him/her to place the index finger between each
word.
Stop Paper Sliding.
If the student has difficulty managing the paper, try using a clipboard.
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Use Texture, Tactile Techniques, and Other Senses.
Practice letter formation by using fingers to trace sandpaper letters, or trace letters in sand or saltfilled trays. Make popcorn; smell, feel and taste the popcorn; glue kernels to letter outlines; feel the
shape; trace lightly with finger; say how the letter is made.
Make ‘Ooze Bags’.
Put hair gel in a zip-lock bag. Cool the ooze-bag in the refrigerator. Color code
the strokes of a letter on the outside of the bag. The first stroke can be one color (blue), the second
stroke another color (orange). Use a dot to show where to begin and arrows to indicate directionality
for each stroke. Trace the letter on the ooze-bag.
Vary the medium. Print or draw simple shapes with a squeeze tube of
Use tempera paints, colored soap suds, shaving cream, etc.
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colored frosting on wax paper.
Print letters with dotted lines for student to copy.
Have child trace cut-out letters using templates.
Motivate with variety. Vary the size, shape, texture, and color of paper. Vary the writing instruments: use large pencils, crayons, markers, chalk, or paint. Use different writing surfaces: individual chalkboards, dry-erase boards, mirrors, windows, the floor, table tops.
Domain B: Social Skills and Approaches to Learning
What is it? Items in this domain assess:
• Social Skills
• Attention
• Approaches to Learning
Why is it important?
This domain is crucial to a successful transition to school, and to later social and academic success. Relationships formed in kindergarten are relatively stable across the elementary
school years. Research demonstrates that children who interact well with teachers and peers
form good social relationships, are perceived
more positively, and do better academically.
How can teachers use the information to support early literacy learning?
Teachers support positive behaviour and manage social-behavioural difficulties using both school/
district policies and a variety of strategies appropriate to their own classroom setting. When students
exhibit significant behavioural difficulties, teachers consult with specialist staff at the school level
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who may then initiate further consultation and/or referral. For these reasons, the following suggestions are provided only as guidelines for teachers. They are adapted
from developmentally appropriate practices for young
school-age children that were published in 2005 by the
Canadian Child Care Federation. Their individual appropriateness can be determined by taking into consideration
students’ cultural and linguistic status, as well as their
specific needs and individual differences.
Be Responsive, Caring, and Inclusive.
• Listen to and respond to children’s questions and
concerns.
• Help students feel good about themselves by encouraging their efforts.
• Be extra sensitive to anxious students who may
really benefit from a smile, extra attention, and/or
verbal encouragement.
• Teach respect for cultural practices and celebrations
– those unique to the region, those more widely celebrated, and those involving specific cultural groups.
• Incorporate stories, materials, and activities that
expose children to diverse settings and cultures.
• In selecting pictures, posters, and books:
avoid stereotypes (racial, gender, disability);
include city, small town, village, and rural settings;
include children and adults with visible special needs.
Be Positive and Consistent.
• Acknowledge and reward appropriate behaviour.
• Minimize opportunities for challenging behaviour.
• Anticipate where/when difficulties are likely to occur. Take steps to prevent them from occur•
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ring. Focus primarily on helping children to remember how to behave, rather than on responding to their misbehaviours.
Hold class meetings to develop and/or revise rules and routines.
Help students understand why limits are necessary. Set clear limits. Enforce them consistently.
Work with the students to develop a few simple rules. State them positively. Display them for all
to see, and refer to them frequently.
When a student violates a rule, be calm, restate the rule, and enforce the consequence.
When the student is calm, talk to him/her quietly – distinguish between feelings and actions:
(“It’s okay to feel angry, but it’s not okay to throw books.”)
Encourage problem recognition and problem solving. Help the student think about how to solve
the problem next time.
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Encourage Peaceful Conflict Resolution.
• Be focused and calm. Keep children involved in the conflict with you while you soothe and
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focus them.
Wait for them to be settled before beginning the conflict resolution process.
Attend to all children involved in a dispute – victim and perpetrator – they need to know you
are there to assist them.
Help them understand that conflict has 2 sides.
Ensure each student has a chance to state what happened and also why it happened.
Allow the students to offer suggestions for solving the conflict.
If they do not offer suggestions, provide some.
Working within those suggestions, help them to choose a solution.
Make sure they follow through on the solution.
Encourage Safe and Healthy Physical Activity.
• Be a good role model for healthy physical activity.
• Remember that participation in physically
active experiences involves all domains
of early learning: cognitive, social, emotional, linguistic and physical.
• Supervise outdoor play closely. Make sure
that:
all drawstrings, cords, and scarves are
securely tucked inside;
the playground and equipment are free of
safety violations.
• Report any unsafe equipment to your
school caretaker and/or health and safety committee.
Recognize the importance of
Peers.
• Encourage friendships.
• Provide opportunities for students to
work with partners and in small groups.
• Provide opportunities for interaction with
other students in the school.
• Provide support to facilitate social interaction by shy and reticent students.
Encourage Independence.
• Provide variety – design activities for
individuals and/or small groups.
• Promote self-selected activities. Set aside
times each day when children can choose from amongst several options.
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• Allow time when young children can select and/or organize activities independently.
• Make materials accessible - store them close to the area of use.
• Teach children to:
select the materials they need and return them where they belong when they are finished using
them;
complete activities safely;
respect the rights of other students who want to use the materials.
• Arrange the environment so that kindergarten children can: play and interact socially; make
choices and complete activities independently; and, participate in group learning activities.
This document has been prepared by Dr Joan Beswick. Dr Beswick is a career educator
who has worked in schools for over 30 years as a teacher, consultant, and administrator.
Her areas of expertise and research interest are readiness-to-learn at school, language and
literacy development, and preventive early intervention. Dr Beswick coordinated an
Understanding the Early Years study and is a research fellow with the Canadian Research
Institute for Social Policy at the University of New Brunswick (UNB-CRISP).
The Early Years Evaluation was developed for KSI Research International Inc. by Dr.
Douglas Willms, Director of UNB-CRISP, and Dr. Joan Beswick.
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