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Membean
Pros: Individualized vocabulary lessons meet students where they are.
Cons: The dated-looking design and high subscription price might limit who uses the tool; limited guidance after selecting incorrect answers.
Bottom Line: A web-based vocabulary platform with potential to boost students' vocabulary knowledge and provide helpful data along the way.
To try out Membean, create a free student account and demo the features for a few days. Take the opening quiz to help the tool determine your vocabulary level, and notice the number of plausible-looking nonsense words thrown in to prevent users from mindlessly clicking "yes" when asked if they recognize each of the words on screen. Then, take a look at the pages for each word, exploring the videos, word definition, example mnemonics, and more. If you use the tool in class, assign students a weekly vocabulary practice goal and provide time in class for practice or assign practice time for homework. Students get a notification when they've reached their daily goal. They can continue practicing or quit early if needed.
Teachers can schedule assessments at regular intervals or push out an assessment immediately to their classes. Teachers get immediate reports of their students' accuracy, practice time, assessment results, and more. Even dubious minutes are noted, alerting teachers if students may be multitasking (or cheating) with multiple browser tabs open or if students are answering too quickly, signaling they may not be reading the text.
Membean is a vocabulary website for test prep (including the SAT and GRE) and for general classroom use in grades 6 through 12. Teachers can set up classes, pre-assess students' vocabulary knowledge, and then set weekly practice goals. Teachers can customize which words are available to their students for training, and settings can be further customized for special education students, ELLs, and students with dyslexia.
When training, students see a word, hear it pronounced, see it in context, and then read a plainspoken definition of the word and its usage. Membean also provides various example sentences, definitions for parts of the word, related word variants, and more. Some words also include video clips that feature the word, visual representations of the word's origin, and related words. After answering a question to assess understanding, students have to spell the word correctly or use it in a sentence before advancing to another word. If the wrong answer is selected, the practice won’t move forward and offers little assistance. The words then appear repeatedly, giving students multiple exposures to cement understanding and recall.
The standout feature of this product is its potential for differentiating instruction. Membean meets every student where they are, from English language learners to more advanced readers with broad vocabularies. The built-in differentiation algorithm makes it simple for teachers to ensure that every student's assigned practice time includes study time with words that make differentiation simple for teachers and discreet for students. Students are challenged at their individual level after taking a "calibration" quiz when they create their account. Through repetition and a multi-sensory approach using visuals, text, and media, students learn new words efficiently.
Does the design look and feel a little dated? Maybe. But the vast scale (3,800+ words!) and quality of its approach makes Membean a helpful tool with staying power.
Learning Rating
Fantastic program!
When a colleague steered me toward Membean last year, I was intrigued. I got to play with it a little at the NCTE conference in Columbus, Ohio, and after only a few minutes of interacting with the program (and talking to the terrific staff), I knew that I wanted to pilot Membean in my room. What I love about this software is that it's easy to tell that the developers researched "best methods" when it comes to vocabulary acquisition. The underpinnings of the methods are sound, and that is a huge deal for me. Visually, the interface is very appealing and it encourages the kids to interact with the new words in a number of ways, from paragraphs that reinforce the word definitions in context to a section that dissects each word into its prefix, suffix and root word. There are sample sentences pulled from authentic sources. There are sound and video clips to see the new words in even more contexts. Synonyms. Antonyms. Mnemonic hooks. I'm telling you, in three decades of teaching language arts, I have never seen such a robust vocabulary program. It's the best piece of teaching software I have ever used. I highly recommend Membean.
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