SOAR's Innovative Approach to Literacy: Insights from Our Founder
By: Dr. Sam Bommarito
Source →We're excited to share highlights from a recent interview with our founder, Carlo Franzblau, conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito. This conversation, part of a series exploring innovative approaches to literacy, sheds light on SOAR's mission and our groundbreaking Family Literacy Project (FLiP).
Carlo shared fascinating insights into FLiP's development and success. The program's origins are quite remarkable - what began as Carlo's personal endeavor to enhance his singing skills unexpectedly blossomed into innovative software designed to assist struggling readers. This approach isn't just novel; it's grounded in solid research, drawing heavily on Dr. Tim Rasinski's work on fluency and repeated reading, and harnessing the motivational power of reading to perform.
The results speak for themselves: FLiP participants have demonstrated extraordinary progress, advancing more than a full year in reading level in a mere three months. This success has fueled SOAR's rapid expansion. In just three years, we've grown from serving 50 families to over 500 in the past year alone - a testament to both the program's effectiveness and the urgent need for such interventions in our communities.
Our efforts haven't gone unnoticed. We're deeply honored to have received the Diversity & Empowerment Education Award from the Pinellas Urban League, recognizing our commitment to fostering literacy and empowerment in diverse communities. As Carlo expressed, "We're excited to catalyze change and growth in reading literacy among at-risk youth in Pinellas County and beyond."
For those interested in learning more about SOAR and the FLiP program, please don't hesitate to reach out to Carlo directly at carlo@singoutandread.org. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our work to close the reading gap and empower young readers in our community. Thank you for your support in making this possible!
Read Dr. Sam Bommarito’s blog recounting the interview, here.
