SMS Students Are Held to Rigorous Academic Standards Despite the Challenges of Athletic Travel

Mary teaches English to ninth and twelfth graders who compete in high-performance winter sports, such as skiing and snowboarding. Her students are typically traveling from November through March, and she was looking for effective ways to accommodate her classes while on the road.

“Because our students travel at different times to various places, we needed something that could travel with them to maintain their learning and be challenged consistently.”

Before finding Membean, Mary and other members of her department had tried vocabulary workbooks and generating vocabulary lists from novels, which they found to be non-optimal. When Membean entered the picture, however, they were impressed by its differentiated format and its feature of doing record keeping for them – they soon realized that Membean could supplant their vocabulary books, save them a lot of time, and increase their students’ learning and retention of vocabulary. Mary was especially impressed that students reviewed words at strategically spaced intervals so that they wouldn’t forget what they had previously learned.

“All my students are at varying levels – it’s such a wide range; fortunately, all their needs can be met through Membean’s truly differentiated format — it’s simply wonderful. Membean enriches each student’s education at their own individual level.’

Mary says that as an SAT Critical Reading/Writing tutor, she has found that students often recognize words learned through Membean, indicating that they are retaining those words throughout their high school years. She is enthused that when her students encounter words in higher-level reading, they will know their meaning due to their Membean training.

“Membean’s impact goes beyond just our English classes. Our history and science teachers often tell me about students’ calling out Membean words in their classes.”

It’s been great for her to find a tool that challenges her students as much academically as they are challenged physically.