MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
051305 What do you eat with `A Clockwork Orange'?
By
RICH MONETTI
The Academy for Educational Success (ACES) program at Fox Lane High School offers an alternative to the traditional standardized approach most teenagers are familiar with. One of the more innovative series includes the Book Talk Dinners.
`The Crucible' dinner is
true to the Puritan
lifestyle, featuring
turkey and corn on the
cob, with apple pie for
dessert.
Some of the topics discussed include Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange," James Dickey's "Deliverance," Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible."
Each discussion is accompanied by a meal
in which the menu is appropriate for the book. The meal is organized and
prepared by students, and then is served formally by other students, with a
formal pre-lesson by Emily Post to teach 
appropriate
table manners and the formal way to set a table and serve a meal. "The Crucible"
dinner is true to the Puritan lifestyle, featuring turkey and corn on the cob,
with apple pie for dessert. "Deliverance," set in the Deep South, features fried
chicken, while "Clockwork Orange" presents spaghetti and sausage, with calamari
salad, which are features of the book.
There's a price of admission that goes beyond the one-page essay and multiple-choice test usually needed to fill out the green grade book. English teacher David Albano's students are required to write 20 essays ranging in length from 200 to 500 words, and then see most of their grade rendered on their ability to discuss the book at length with peers and teachers.
The idea is that students will learn what it's like to sit down in a formal setting and discuss what they've learned.
The program, which has been ongoing for the last 27 years, don't just restrict its alternative methods to English or leave the kids high and dry in June. "We get them ready mostly by doing what we do," says the 1983 Fox Lane graduate, "and they do fine on the Regents."
"Like any place, there are tough days," says Mr. Albano, who's been teaching since 1989. "But whenever I have a chance to describe it to somebody, I realize how lucky I am."
As for the kids, some are honor students looking for a different approach to learning, while others are recommended for ACES because they aren't getting good grades but should be (as their teachers see it). The most common thread that ties them together, according to Mr. Albano, is that the students enjoy class and really like the learning part of school.
Every June the students propose a trip and decide democratically on a location for the following semester. As a teacher in this program for the last eight years, Mr. Albano enjoys the teaching challenge the trip presents. "It's an incredible experience to be able to teach in a place where I get to figure out how to connect my English curriculum to going to Spain," tie says of this year's trip.
Of course, this all costs money, and that meant a fundraiser, which goes toward the program's budget, a scholarship for the outstanding senior, and the adult-size field trip. Some kids are lucky enough to pay for the trip outright, but the collaborative community culture being cultivated by the program has all the students present at the annual car wash/tag sale. "While the students are working," says Mr. Albano, "they know they are working to help each other."
Creating a culture of learning also plays into it, and students are motivated to keep up as they will be expected to when they aren't so close to Route 172 in Bedford. "This is one of the things they need to do to get ready to go to college," he says, so assignments must be handed in on time.
But Mr. Albano sees the reading program as more than just helping students to someday ace English 101. "They get through something really substantial and they really feel like they truly understand it now," he says. "And they get why reading is exciting."
The car wash will be on Saturday, May 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tag sale, bake sale, and barbecue takes place on May 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call Kathy Laff at 666-5983 or log to www.ACESschool.com