LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Students across Kentucky are enjoying their summer vacations. Many of those students are having fun and getting focused support for reading and literacy.

What You Need To Know

  • Nonprofit, I Would Rather Be Reading, was created in 2018 by Allison Ogle and Ashley Dearinger; both educators

  • The women say they created the organization after seeing children coming into class needing more help.

  • Approximately 700 kindergarten through fifth grade children  are enrolled in summer camps across nine different sites around Louisville 

  • The program helps children with their literary skills and confidence

Ten-year-old Joshua Gliff’s eyes light up when you ask him what his favorite book is.

“My favorite book is ‘Always Beat the Cat.’ Yeah, I do watch that show on Amazon Prime Video,” Gliff explained.

He is one of many children participating this summer in the nonprofit I Would Rather Be Reading. They provide summer camps, reading tutoring, family engagement, after-school programs, enrichment and more. This is Griff’s second summer at one of the camps, and he’s learning a lot.

“I’ve learned about math, reading and science sometimes,” he said.

Allison Ogle helped create I Would Rather Be Reading in 2018 with another educator. When teaching, they found a lot of children were coming into class with heavy burdens. That, they found, affected learning and development.

“Our mission is to provide equitable access to high-quality after school programming that really focuses on explicit social-emotional development skills as well as structured literacy intervention. We want to provide those two things so our kids are literate, healthy citizens,” Ogle explained.

Now, they have about 700 Kindergarten though 5th grade children enrolled in summer camps across nine different sites around Louisville and it’s growing. The program follows the structured literacy model. The model helps children understand the sounds of words and letters, how they all come together to create meaning.

Ogle said students use literacy and reading as a tool to investigate and explore.

“Half the battle is really showing them you are smart and you can do this. We are going to help you do this. By the end of your tutoring sessions and at the end of this program, you are going to be just like the rest of your peers reading away,” Ogle explained.

Ogle said the program is working for students, improving their reading skills and confidence. Gliff said reading has gotten better for him and now he enjoys it even more.

“This is the best summer camp I’ve ever been at,” he said. He’s already looking forward to next summer. 

Ogle said the nonprofit is in early talks right now, with other school districts in the state where they are trying to expand the program.

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