Have you finished your minutes for this week?

No, not minutes you spent in the treadmill or practicing the piano but, minutes spent finishing your weekly Membean assignment. If you’re not familiar with Membean, it is a service used by the English department as of this year.

Membean is a vocabulary subscription software that uses repeated sounds, pictures and questions to help users learn new words. The online program teaches users the vocabulary using these specific methods in a certain amount of time that the user can decide.

English Department Head Mr. Lemieux helped bring the program to the school because the program allows for individual pacing as students actually learn use the words.

Membean applies algorithms to create a custom leaning experience for each individual user, teaching the user at his or her own pace. The difficulty of the vocabulary is based on an achievement level that the program assigns the user.

For this reason, the quizzes are also custom fit for each individual student. There are five levels from 1 to 5 that a user can be placed in depending on their knowledge of vocabulary. There are a specific amount of words to learn in each level and once all have been learned the user will move on to the next level.

At ODA, English teachers assign students a certain amount of time to be completed learning on Membean each week, usually followed by a small quiz at the end of the week based on the words that the students have learned.

“It gets you to remember the words since you do it so often and I like how it mixes in the words and just does them one at a time.” said sophomore Owen Ragsdale.

“I really enjoy it and I think it’s a easy way to learn vocabulary and it actually helps,” said junior Chase Johnson.

So… have you completed your Membean for the week?