The Fran Bowman Multisensory Reading Program

We are pleased to announce that we are renaming our Ogstar Reading Program in honor of Fran Bowman for her contributions to fostering literacy in Rwanda. 

The Ogstar Reading app, developed by Fran Bowman, Ed.D. and Stephanie Nislow, M.Ed, is a researched-based methodology for teaching reading based on the principles of Orton-Gillingham. Designed to help children to learn to read English at their own pace with minimum teacher support, this gamified, self-paced app makes learning fun and engaging for children. The multisensory app focuses on the language skills of learning and organizing sounds and symbols and developing fluency.

The Kigali Christian School, our new partner school along with select second graders at our primary partner, Duha School are participating in a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of this new methodology in rural Rwanda. Most teachers in Rwanda are not trained in teaching reading, and large class sizes prevent individualized and differentiated instruction.

We extend our gratitude to Fran and Stephanie for partnering with REAP to introduce an extraordinarily innovative and researched-based technology to address the literacy needs of children in rural Rwanda.