Here at Morgan, Membean is expected in every English class, no matter the grade or level of the class. 30-45 minute sessions each week, for the 36-week school year, adds up to about 105 hours spent on Membean in your high-school career. But are students wasting their time?
Membean is an educational website created by Ragav Satish in 2008, that helps any grade level student with vocabulary. Their goal is to create personalization for the students while activating memory reinforcement. Once assigned a class, you must take a vocabulary test. The website gives you words and terms that you have to match. At the end of the test, Membean will give you a level based on your accuracy.
Many students dread to complete their weekly requirements. Senior, Aleia Aleman has had Membean for 3 years of high school. This year, she takes Honors Humanities with Mr. Carroll. This specific class isn’t required Membean due to the fact it’s more Art and History related.
When Aleman completed Membean she explained that “It wasn’t useful, and she doesn’t use the words.” Aleman saw Membean as just another grade in Powerschool.
Aleman is not alone. Senior Lily Pan disagrees with the fact Membean is a useful tool. Pan takes ECE English Honors and is obligated to complete a 30-minute session each week.
“It takes up a lot of time, especially when some students have sports or clubs every day. It gets tiring.”
For many students PawPrint talked to, along with the other assignments The Morgan Students receive, Membean feels like an extra weight on their shoulders. That extra grade in the grade book can make or break you.
However, others believe there are benefits to completing Membean. According to The Morgan School’s data from 2023-24 school year, the average rate on training questions was 78%. Additionally, as opposed to the old vocab books that were the same for every student, according to the website Educational Technology Journal, websites like Membean that require students to use a smart device for vocab, significantly enhance student focus when provided with an interactive and personalized learning experience.
Before all this technology, The Morgan School used vocabulary books. It was another way of helping students improve their vocabulary. The Morgan School switched over to Membean around 7 years ago. Sophomore and senior English teacher, Amanda Auger, stated that she liked the vocab book, but it was not as effective.
“The thing that I do like about Membean is that it meets students where they are, so especially for our multilingual learners or ELS students, it really does help them with vocabulary.” Auger mentioned. Textbooks don’t adapt to the student’s lexile level. If teachers we’re giving everybody the same words, it can be really tough, depending on where students are, especially with language differences throughout The Morgan School.
English teacher, Eric Bergman, doesn’t use Membean as often as the other teachers, choosing to focus on other areas of improvement. Bergman explained, “I don’t think it’s [Membean] the only answer. I think, immersing yourself in independent reading, is one of the most important things you can do.”
A substitute for Membean that Mr. Bergman focuses on are “mind maps” of the book the class is reading. This mind map is on paper and students can tie in their own creativity with colors and pictures to help express the definitions of words and their meanings.
Some students in his class appreciate the change. An English 3, student of Mr. Bergman claimed, “We have to complete the mind maps by including vocab within the book or play we are reading and look up the definition of words we don’t know to include on the mind map.” She says that this is helpful to her learning because the class ends up using these mind maps to study for a test or quiz. The mind maps are assigned weekly to bi-weekly.
As it stands, it doesn’t look like Membean is going anywhere. Assistant Superintendent, Marco Famligeti implied that “It’s key for PSAT, SAT, ACT, and other tests.” The district believe by using Membean, it is helping students prepare not just for these important tests, but also for the future.
