Microsoft Word Version: Duchesne_Abracadabra_Final Project

Abracadabra: A Digital Tool to Improve Phonics and Phonemic Awareness 

Introduction 

Reading is one of the most fundamental and important skills students learn in their early school careers. As reading is not a natural skill, it must be explicitly taught and practiced in order to learn. Many students at all grade levels are struggling to keep up with their grade level expectations due to the presence of gaps in their learning where they have underdeveloped skills in one or more key areas holding them back from progressing. It is not enough to simply be able to read the words on a page. One must be able to also read quickly, use proper pronunciation, expression, while simultaneously having a deep understanding of the words, sentences and paragraphs being read. With the advancement of technology, more and more digital reading tools are becoming available to schools, but how do we know if these are the right tools to be using? Abracadabra is one such tool that has been developed for struggling and beginning readers, and studied by researchers with the intent of creating a data-driven reading tool to help all students learn to read in a fun, engaging way. 

What is Abracadabra 

In 2008, Concordia University reading researcher Robert Savage and his team at Concordia’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance launched their educational web-based reading tool called Abracadabra (ABRA). With an alarmingly high number of students struggling to develop basic reading skills, Abracadabra was designed and studied by researchers from around the world with proven best practices for reading instruction. Abracadabra is a free website, available in both French and English, which hosts 35 different interactive educational games based around 20 classic stories. Abrami et al. (2020) states “the evidence-based nature of ABRA ensures the systematic integration of cumulative research on the major skills and associated subskills” (p. 261) of reading.

Abracadabra’s activities are all based on the five pillars of literacy which build upon each other to create a strong foundation for reading. In order, the five pillars of literacy are: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate sounds in spoken words. Phonics is the skill of reading visual text. Fluency suggests the ability to read accurately with proper rate and expression. Having a strong vocabulary is to know the meaning of many words. The ultimate goal for reading is always to achieve strong reading comprehension- to understand, make connections to and empathize with what you are reading. If any of these skills are lacking or missing, strong reading comprehension will not be achieved. 

Abrami et al. (2020) discusses the gamification of Abracadabra adding that the characters contribute to the game-like feel of the site with their unique voices, look and story which students can read or listen to. It is this “underlying narrative thread [that] also helps create a gaming experience in ABRA ” (Abrami et al., 2020, p. 261) which can increase student’s engagement and willingness to participate with the reading activities.

How to Use Abracadabra 

As a web-based tool, Abracadabra must be accessed using the internet (literacy.concordia.ca) and works best on a computer or tablet. Students or teachers first select the skills they wish to work on: sounds/letters/words, reading, understanding the story, or writing. Then they are given a list of activities to choose from, all focusing on the skill they chose and its subsequent subskills. Next they are able to select the story genre they are most interested in: folk and fairy tales, poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. And finally, after the genre has been selected, they choose the story such as The Little Red Hen, Three Billy Goats Gruff, How a Bean Sprouts, etc. The story they choose will determine the words used in the activity.

Abracadabra is designed for students from many different ability levels and stages of reading to be able to use it independently. Abrami et al. (2020) states “embedded support within ABRA tailors the degree of learner scaffolding offered as students interact with the tool” (p. 261). There are several different types of scaffolding built into Abracadabra to help each individual work on the skills they need, at the level of difficulty they need and get feedback on their success. Each activity, no matter the skill or difficulty level, gives explicit instruction with a demo video of how to play the game, as well as options during the activity to repeat the word or get extra hints if necessary. 

As this website is intended to be used by people still learning to read, we cannot expect them to read instructions and words to navigate through the site and play the games. The entire site is narrated by a lively female voice which gives prompts for what to click on, what the options are and encouraging messages. In each game, the main character narrates the demo video and activity with their own unique voice. The buttons on the site are all picture based, where they are either only a picture or a picture with words which the teacher can use when looking for a specific skill or activity. 

Why Abracadabra 

There is a large body of evidence pointing to the effectiveness of Abracadabra as a beneficial reading instructional and supplemental tool for young children. Research on the effectiveness of the impact of Abracadabra undertaken by Abrami et al. (2020)  since 2008 has gathered data from 3,341 K-3 students using the software and 4,047 in the control group from all around the world including Canada, Australia, China, Kenya and the UK. This study used strict controls and trained reading interventionists to determine if and how much Abracadabra was benefiting students reading, and in what areas in particular. The findings suggest that Abracadabra “ benefits both boys and girls about equally and that low performing students and struggling readers were often able to learn the most and retain that learning beyond the initial intervention”  (Abrami et al., 2020, p. 277). 

A study by Savage et al. (2009) involving grade 1 students were given reading intervention using Abracadabra while the control groups did not use the site and received their regular reading intervention form their teacher. This study showed “significant improvements in letter knowledge in the analytic phonics program and significant improvements in phonological awareness” (Savage et al., 2009, p. 590) with some improvement in fluency, listening and reading comprehension as well. The results garnered from these studies suggest that Abracadabra  “can produce significant growth in standard measures of reading ability” (Savage et al., 2009, p. 601). To make sure the positive impacts of Abracadabra were long lasting, the research team followed up with post-intervention assessments on the students and found that “significant effects of ABRA were evident 7 months after the interventions closed on standardized measures of children’s phonological blending skills and reading fluency” (Savage, 2009, p. 599).

Many reading intervention programs being used by schools are very expensive to purchase, require training or specialists to be administered properly and/or are not based on research driven best practices. Abracadabra being a free-access, web-based literacy intervention, is “unique as a medium in terms of sustainability, accessibility, and impact on the wider community” (Savage et al., 2009, p. 601). From the research results revealing the significant improvements particularly in the areas of phonics and phonemic awareness, and being free to access, Abracadabra  “was shown to be a cost-effective solution to enhance the literacy skills of young children” (Abrami, 2020, p. 277). 

Who benefits from Abracadabra

The activities in Abracadabra are designed for beginning readers and those struggling to achieve grade level reading skills in lower elementary. There are several different ways a teacher or interventionist may choose to use this tool which may include the whole class (tier 1), small group (tier 2 ) or individually in tier 3 intervention (Wolgemuth, 2014). Because the majority of the activities in Abracadabra are focused around letters, sounds and word reading, this resource would most likely only be used in a whole class setting in Kindergarten and grade 1. By the end of grade 1, most students are focused on reading larger, more complex texts and working on reading comprehension which can be done with Abracadabra though is not the main focus of this resource. In grade 1 and above Abracadabra would most likely be used with small groups and individual struggling readers to target the specific skills they are lacking which is holding them back from achieving proficiency in reading. Piquette (2014) highlights the potential for Abracadabra as a successful intervention tool saying it “promotes the teaching and learning of early language and literacy English skills, especially those at risk of school failure” (p. 2). The gamified nature of Abracadabra with engaging characters, stories and various games and levels of difficulty to choose from, even the most reluctant and struggling readers can find enjoyment and success with this digital reading tool. 

Conclusion 

With so many reading tools available to educators, it can be overwhelming to sift through them all and make informed choices for what will be the best fit for a school, classroom or individual. Abracadabra promotes data-driven best practices for reading using engaging activities shown to significantly improve elementary students’ reading skills, particularly phonemic awareness and phonics. This free digital reading tool offers high accessibility due to its cost, universal design, scaffolding and varied difficulty levels making it a good choice to use for all young readers. 

 

References 

Abrami, P. C., Lysenko, L., & Borokhovski, E. (2020). The effects of ABRACADABRA on reading outcomes: An updated meta‐analysis and landscape review of applied field research. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(3), 260-279. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12417 

Piquette, N. A., Savage, R. S., & Abrami, P. C. (2014). A cluster randomized control field trial of the ABRACADABRA web-based reading technology: Replication and extension of basic findings. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1413-1413. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01413 

Savage, R. S., Abrami, P., Hipps, G., & Deault, L. (2009). A randomized controlled trial study of the ABRACADABRA reading intervention program in grade 1. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 590-604. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014700 

Wolgemuth, J. R., Abrami, P. C., Helmer, J., Savage, R., Harper, H., & Lea, T. (2014). Examining the impact of ABRACADABRA on early literacy in northern australia: An implementation fidelity analysis. The Journal of Educational Research, 107(4), 299-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2013.823369