STEAM Gifted & Talented Academy

The STEAM Gifted and Talented Academy at Landry is a new and exciting program housed exclusively at Landry Elementary School designed to serve CFBISD’s Gifted and Talented (GT) students.  STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.   It will offer the unique opportunity for identified students to learn with their academic peers in homogeneously grouped classes with enriched curriculum (not grade accelerated) in the four content areas: Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. It is offered in grades 1 through 5.  This program allows students to take advantage of the enriched Imagine Fine Arts combined with extensions in technology and engineering.

Updates will be available at www.cfbgiftedacademy.com.

Students are served on each campus in a cluster grouping model. Cluster grouping is where students are in a general education class and the teacher differentiates through small group instruction with their academic peers.  Students in K, 1st, and 2nd are served across all content areas. Students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade are served in the academic area(s) of their strength (ELA or Math). Students, who were previously identified GT in Kindergarten and 1st grade, are reviewed in 2nd grade to determine if their achievement is high in Language Arts, Math, or both. This review determines the content area(s) in which they will continue to be served. Those students who are newly identified in 2nd grade and above are automatically placed in GT in Language Arts, Math, or both depending on their achievement and ability assessments.  All students who are identified for either ELA, math or both are eligible for the STEAM Gifted Academy.

Homogeneous grouping means that students will be taught in the content classroom with only other identified students. This is an academic grouping model unique to the STEAM Gifted Academy.  STEAM students will interact with all grade level peers in Fine Arts, Physical Education, and after school programming.

Both models are similar in that they are self-contained classrooms; however, the LEAP program, CFBISD’s Leading Exceptional Academic Producers GT program, is for highly gifted students demonstrating achievement and ability at two grade levels above in all subject areas. This program is housed at McCoy Elementary and at Perry Middle School. This is another unique CFBISD program for gifted students who qualify by meeting additional criteria beyond the Advanced Learner placement.

The STEAM Gifted Academy will be for first through fifth grades. Kindergarten is not part of the design of the program.

Class size in first through fourth grades are typically 22 students. Fifth grade may expand to additional students according to state guidelines.

Just like Advanced Learners at their home campuses, the STEAM Gifted Academy will follow the district grade level curriculum and state TEKS. Students will also take state tests on grade level.  The difference will be the pacing and additional extensions that the Academy teachers will do to differentiate student learning. Each academic content will offer enrichment to the academic program with the goal of increased student engagement to meet the advanced academic needs of our Advanced Learners.  Planned extensions for math will include lessons from Contexts for Learning Math; science/technology/engineering will include problem-based learning by using LEGO learning units; social studies will learn through hands-on experiences with Geography Labs; and English Language Arts will conduct additional research with Texas Performance Standards Projects.  Academy students will also participate in the Imagine Fine Arts Academy at Landry.

Landry is one of the Imagine Fine Arts Academies in CFBISD.  Students learn and grow through art, music, theater, and dance in a rotation schedule. This additional exposure to the fine arts further enhances the STEAM Gifted Academy experience for GT students.  Auditions for ensembles are open for all of Landry students.

No. The STEAM Gifted Academy at Landry classes will be in English.  World Language is not part of the curriculum design.