Gifted & Talented Program

The state's and Newman International Academy's goal for Gifted & Talented  students is to ensure that those students who participate in G/T services demonstrate skills in self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication. G/T students develop innovative products and sophisticated performances that reflect individuality and creativity and are targeted to an audience outside the classroom.

A gifted & talented student is a child or youth who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment and who

  • exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area;
  • possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; or
  • excels in a specific academic field. 

Newman International Academy District
Gifted and Talented Education

Gifted and Talented Identification and Assessment

Parents who have observed evidence that their child or youth “performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment” may choose to nominate him or her as a potential candidate for the Newman Gifted and Talented Program.  Newman students are assessed, identified, and served in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Arts (Music, Art, Drama, Dance), Leadership and/or Creativity, based on student areas of Gifted and Talented identification. Newman students must qualify in three of the four following assessed areas:                                                                                                                                                           1. Teacher Nomination and Check List

                2. Parent Nomination and Check List

                3. Student Portfolio (Parents are encouraged to submit portfolio samples)

                4. Testing- A Battery of Cognitive & Creative Ability Assessments

Kindergarten:  Nominations/referrals for kindergarten Gifted and Talented assessments will take place the first Monday in December through the third Thursday in December.

Grades 1-6: A nomination/referral must be submitted to the campus by a parent/guardian or a teacher before a student can be considered for elementary Gifted and Talented assessment.

Please submit nomination/referral forms to the GT Specialist on your child’s campus. Nominations for grades 1-12 may be submitted the last week in August through the third week in September each school year.

Transfer Students: Transfer students who have previously received Gifted and Talented services will be considered for services in Newman International Academy District within one month from the date of registration or within one month of the first day of school if registration occurs in the spring or summer. Gifted and Talented assessment and identification records are expected to be enclosed in the cumulative student file or will be requested from the previous school to determine if additional assessment is required.

Gifted and Talented Education Program
PARENT CONSENT FORM

Elementary Gifted and Talented Services

Kindergarten:  Identified kindergarten students receive Gifted and Talented services through a weekly pullout program. GT Specialists guide students through a curriculum of higher level thinking skills: convergent/deductive thinking, divergent/inventive thinking, convergent/analytical thinking, divergent/creative thinking, visual/spatial perception, and evaluative thinking.

Grades 1-6: Gifted and Talented students in grades 1 through 6 are served through a daily pull out program that includes at least two days each week of required Gifted and Talented services and three days a week of optional Challenge Lab services. The curriculum includes thinking skills and interdisciplinary units which provide opportunities for learners to study advanced content and develop independent projects. GT Specialists facilitate learning in the Gifted and Talented classroom by challenging students to develop higher level thinking skills and to draw upon their conceptual to create meaningful connections. Through these connections students are encouraged to become life-long learners. Each identified G/T student is required to complete at least one of the Texas Performance Standards Projects each school year. These students present products or performances to an authentic audience in a GT EXPO each May.

The Newman Academy District has purchased the Renzulli Learning System for identified gifted and talented students (grades 1 – 6) for the 2020-21 school year. “Renzulli Learning is an interactive online system that provides a personalized learning environment for students, which allows teachers to easily differentiate instruction to increase engagement and achieve higher academic performance. Renzulli Learning supports strength based personalized learning in all subjects for students. The Renzulli Profiler quickly identifies student strengths, interests, learning and expression styles and then matches each student with thousands of personalized engaging Enrichment Activities. Renzulli Learning features robust student grouping which supports our revolutionary strength-based Project Based Learning (PBL) system.”

Elementary Challenge Lab

1.  An exciting problem-based, hands-on, creative and technology enriched learning environment for students who need academic and creative challenge beyond the classroom.
2.   A classroom where students can participate in challenging problem-based learning, creative and critical thinking, fun math games, projects, and mystery solutions.
3.   A place where teachers can send students who have mastered objectives, achieved an academic goal, completed classwork correctly, and need an academic challenge.

For More Information

Please click HERE to view the Autumn 2020 GT Parent Meeting Power Point.