Grandmother Brings Life to Reading

Dozens of children hang on Nancy Gordon’s every word.

Whether they are fifth-graders trying to finish Sylvia Cassedy’s “Behind the Attic Wall” or kindergartners following along to Marcia Brown’s “Stone Soup,” everyone at Sherman Oaks Elementary School is listening.

Gordon started reading to her grandson’s kindergarten class in 1993. Today, the 64-year-old Encino resident reads to more than 30 classes a week.

“It’s like having 650 grandchildren,” she said recently. “You won’t believe the love you will receive.”

Whether she is reading classic fairy tales or the works of Beverly Cleary or Roald Dahl, Gordon makes the characters come to life.

“I cry, I laugh, I holler, I scream,” she said. “I just enjoy what I am doing.”

The kids seem to enjoy it too, according to what she hears from their parents.

“You’ve created a monster,” one told her recently. “I have to make sure to take the flashlight away from my daughter at night, because she’s reading under her covers.”

Another begged Gordon to start reading at her son’s middle school when he graduates.

Besides Gordon’s theatrical style, the content of the books she selects has won over kids, parents and administrators with the Los Angeles Unified School District. She not only entertains, she teaches.

Through the years, she has read about the Holocaust, the Bosnian war from a child’s perspective and a Japanese girl who developed leukemia after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

She reads, students listen and they all talk. About new words, new concepts or new emotions the books bring out.

“Not only does she give them the pleasure of listening to literature they night not have heard, but [they learn] that someone out there really values them,” said Principal Tom Stekol.

The school district recently recognized Gordon with a Distinguished Service Award for volunteers over 55 years old. Besides reading, she has served as a class assistant, handcrafted bracelets and key chains for graduating fifth-graders, helped students overcome language barriers and made costumes for drama productions.

Ever since the award was announced, Gordon has been the toast of the school at graduation ceremonies and goodbye lunches. She even wore her medal--which hung at the end of a starched red, white and blue ribbon--to school.

“I felt like an Olympiad,” she said.

Gordon was always drawn to teaching but never pursued it, choosing to marry young, raise two children and work in various capacities in the medical field. She said she has no regrets.

“As a teacher, you are in one room with one class,” she said. “This way, I can be with all of them . . . I can’t think of another time in my life when I’ve had so much fun.”

Here are some of Gordon’s favorite books listed by grade level:

Kindergarten:

* “Casey the Utterly Impossible Horse,” Anita Feagles

* “The Little Horse that Raced the Train,” Wilma Pitchford Hays

First grade:

* “The School Mouse,” Dick King-Smith

* “The Enormous Crocodile,” Roald Dahl

* “No Flying in the House,” Betty Brock

Second grade:

* “My Father’s Dragon” series, Ruth Stiles Gannett

Third grade:

* “The Indian in the Cupboard” series, Lynne Reid Banks

Fourth grade:

* “The Great Horn Spoon,” Sid Fleischman

* “The Wish Giver,” Bill Brittain

Fifth grade:

* “Walk Two Moons,” Sharon Creech

* “Running Out of Time,” Margaret Peterson Haddix

KUDOS

College Bound: The law firm O’Melveny & Myers awarded $16,000 each in college scholarships to these graduating San Fernando High School seniors: Humberto Cuentas, Janea Daniels, Carmen Gutierrez, Edgar Ibarra, Francisco Lopez, Lourdes Munoz and Adrian Perez.

The students were selected for the law firm’s scholarship program in 1994 when they were fifth-graders at San Fernando’s O’Melveny Elementary School. Since then, each has maintained a high grade point average and met regularly with a mentor from the law firm.

The firm has nominated a new group of fifth-graders to receive scholarships upon graduation from high school in 2007. They are Paulina Aguayo, Paola Anguiano, Viviana Arrigon, Oscar Avalos, Lizet Castaneda, Brenda Gonzalez, Cynthia Navarro and Nelly Ruvalcaba.

PROGRAM NOTES

History Repeats: First-year teacher Brian Cassady from Holmes Middle School in Northridge delved into his past for a way to help his seventh-grade world history students do well on their final exams.

For 10 weeks, Cassady quizzed 44 students during lunch and after school with a fast-paced tournament that queried them on everything from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance.

“The ones that participated in the tournament did very well,” Cassady said.

He said he studied in a similar way when he was an eighth-grader in Massachusetts.

“I just really thought it was fun,” he said. “It just stuck with me.”

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