Community Review of Membean | Common Sense Education

My Rating

Engagement

Pedagogy

Supports

My Take

This is a fantastic, easy to use teaching tool. There are many support videos within the program for teachers and students. Membean actually gleams information from a team of teachers across the country gaining feedback on the program, which is why enhancements and updates are frequent to meet the needs of students and teachers. For example, one of the future updates will allow the program to be accessible on any device and function properly. It is already accessible, but it does not always load in the way it is intended.

How I Use It

I use Membean for in-depth vocabulary study with all of my courses from students needing extra support to my honors-level students. For high school, there are options for students performing below expectations because of the program design grades sixth through twelve. A sixth-grader, who is significantly behind - low literacy, will begin at the first level for middle school. Membean offers different levels within the middle school model. It may take the low literacy student a while to progress. The teacher would set the differentiation tools to help low-literacy students be more successful using the program. There are many settings including settings specific for students with dyslexia. Membean offers writing options, novel study accompaniments, pod-casts, and so much more. I can use it for independent study with my students with the assessment model. I can add things to enrich the experience for my students with the experts from Membean available around the clock. The support from Membean is unbelievable.

More community reviews for Membean

Spencer M.

October 13, 2022

Out of date and uses bad teaching methods

I have a long list of grievances with membean. What membean doesn't take into account is context and uses old outdated definitions not commonly used anymore. It's severely difficult for students with dyslexia to use since spelling counts and many of the words look alike. Some days you're given up to 15-20ish new words and when you have to do this 3-5 times a week it ends up being overwhelming. They try to teach you definitions by showing pictures that have nothing to do with the word (for example the picture for "arbiter" is a man in jorts holding a dog, and "frivolous" is a toddler in a shirt that says "i love my mom). The site is fine during stage 1 but as soon as you move on from that you have multiple words that start with the same 2 letters and have the same meaning and you just have to guess what it is, and when you have 300ish words in play it just becomes a guessing game for the spelling ones. I think it has to potential to be good, it just needs a lot of changes.

1 person found this helpful.

Theresa E. Curriculum & EdTech Trainer & Consultant Mansfield, TX

April 28, 2022

Do not use this vague outdated vocabulary tool that lacks accessibility tools

It is repetitive and some of the picture questions are so vague that adults can’t figure out. Such as an image of a squirrel holding its hands up for the word alert. I would not use this as a teacher and I hate it as a parent

Unpolished S.

December 8, 2020

Membean is a wonderful way to learn. I'd definitely recommend it, however, there are a couple things I'd like to address.

My overall take on Membean as a student is mostly positive. It's incredibly easy to use and is good at what it was made to do. But again, as I said earlier, Membean is mildly sexist in its definitions, so if you have a strict ideology about sexism, I would be hesitant about allowing your students to use Membean without using it yourself.

See 8 reviews

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