Ida Crown Implements New Membean Vocabulary Program

By GADI KALMAN

Last year, Mrs. Kahan and Mr. Olson added vocabulary homework, through a website called Membean, to their syllabus. Membean is an online vocabulary instructor website that includes multiple different methods to learn new words and customized learning for individual students.

Membean places students into different levels based on a placement test and provides many different ways of learning a word. It contains content such as audio, video, and word maps.

Dr. Jeremy Kahan, the assistant dean, introduced Mrs. Tirza Kahan to Membean. Mrs. Kahan explored the website and recommended that her classes use it.

Last school year, Mrs. Kahan assigned Membean homework several times a week. Mrs. Kahan found that it increased students’ vocabulary more than traditional ways of teaching students new vocab words.

Mrs. Kahan said, “Students were able to to recognize Membean words in all their classes and were able to identify what they meant.”

Now, Mr. Olson and Mrs. Arons are using the program too.

Josh Pogonitz, a junior at Ida Crown, who participated in the Membean curriculum last year said, “Membean is a great website that helps students increase their vocabulary.”

Although Membean is time consuming, usually about 45 minutes per week, students agree that the program has benefited them enormously.

Junior Tami Drutman, says, “It’s very time consuming especially because of all the other work we are getting already in high school, but because I’m learning so much from it, it’s definitely worth it.”

Pogonitz agrees: “It increases my vocabulary and it is totally not a waste of time.”

This article originally appeared in The Crown Prints student newspaper and was reposted here with permission.