What is Reading University

The future is so bright, we had to wear shades!

The staff of Reading University are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again offer this ” amazingly cool” program to students from July 2nd to July 19, 2024.

Reading University (RU) is a remarkable and exciting Grande Prairie-grown program designed to help Grade 3 students who are almost at grade level but need a little more literacy practice to improve their reading and writing skills.

Students are bussed to and from their homes, and provided with snacks, lunch, and all the supplies needed to succeed. On top of that, there are field trips, reading bucks and we even have our store!

This program is 100% community funded, meaning no cost to families while allowing the RU staff to maintain a ratio of one educator for every 5 students throughout the 3 week experience. Students are engaged in learning using a wide variety of interactive learning strategies throughout the RU experience. It is an awesome way to kick off the summer!

"Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss." Nora Ephron - 1941-2012

Check out our 2024 video! Watch

Testimonials

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I believe the program was a great experience for my child. It was intense three weeks for him but the benefits were well worth it. He continues to read at Grade Level and these extra opportunities are huge for my son who I believe has to work really hard to maintain reading at grade level. I think the teachers put great effort to make this experience special for the kids. I think this summer program helped him not lose words over the summer and highly motivated him to want to be a great reader. We are a busy household and sometimes important things like reading get shuffled to the bottom. My other son was also blessed with attending this program; he participated the very first year. I cannot believe how much this program grew. Thanks for all your hard work and your continued success to help others.

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“I love reading and encouraging a love of literacy. It was a wonderful experience for me. I hope that I left the students empowered to explore and enjoy reading.”

“Every year we get better at measuring where children are at when they come to the program and how much progress they make. I feel good about the difference we are making to our students' future.”

“I like it that my Mom wants to read with me now.”