Update - I finished recording all the audio for each word!
For those that haven't used it before, Memrise is a website based spaced repitition vocabulary learning method. It is similar to Anki but much simpler and easy to use but also has other answering methods (listen and choose the correct answer, type the answer, multiple choice choose the meaning, etc).
I made these Memrise courses for all the "New Words" introduced in each unit of the New Horizon junior high school textbooks. With the colourful presentation, relative ease of use of Memrise and the leaderboard for each course I am hoping that it will get the students more involved in vocabulary learning/memorising.
I will be checking the progress of the students and may add some simple sentences if I see that the students are going to complete the courses very early in the school year (I think this would be a good idea anyway so there is lots of stuff for the faster more intense students who finish quickly). Also, some words are in multiple times (because of different definitions). I will have an eye on this as it may cause problems (being marked wrong when selecting the "wrong" correct answer).
For the first grade, as there are so many more words introduced than the other grades they only currently have the new words from the numbered units (not the "Let's Read", "Let's Talk" or Stage activity sections). 2nd and 3rd grade courses include these sections too.
I helped my JTEs set up groups for each of their classes so they can see who is using it and which words are difficult. Also, you could make and put QR codes on your ALT boards if the JTEs don't want to do it in class or perhaps they like their own method for learning vocabulary. This assumes that the students have chromebooks that they use in school. Be aware, I had some hurdles to jump through with my Board of Education to use these in schools. The students using their google accounts to create a Memrise account was a sticking point. I am hoping there is a high uptake with a positive reaction though!
Send me a message below if you notice any glaring mistakes. I edited the definitions from the original list (I found on Github) so that they are a little easier to read on Memrise (also some definitions are ones not used in the textbooks). The link to the original list and my edited lists are below in case you want to use them for something else.
I really hope that this gets some good use! Have a great week guys! Keep being awesome!
First grade course: https://app.memrise.com/course/6398670/new-horizon-zhong-xue-xiao-1nichi-nian-sheng-engli/
Second grade course: https://app.memrise.com/course/6399259/new-horizon-zhong-xue-xiao-2nichi-nian-sheng-engli/
Third grade course: https://app.memrise.com/course/6399293/new-horizon-zhong-xue-xiao-3nichi-nian-sheng-engli/
My master lists (edited): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tT6iGblflSxP4NxYAyMzL8qzR2WsgoWz?usp=sharing
Original list that I worked from: https://github.com/tgmgroup/Word-List-from-New-Horizons (thanks to the person who made this! It made it so much easier)
So am I understanding correctly that in your schools the BOE gave permission for each student to "make" an account on memrise using their school google accounts?
This looks great but that does seem like a tall order for many schools. Would love to try though.
Yeah, for those that don't get permission you can encourage the students to do it themselves (with their own memrise or google accounts) through ALT boards, tell them about it in class, etc... There was a couple of months of mulling and teeth sucking involved. Good luck!
Thank you for all the work you put into this! I would like to use this, but I have some questions about using Memrise.
Is it possible to either duplicate the course, or to have the scoreboard only show the students from one school?
There is no way to duplicate courses that I know of (bar copying and pastings all the levels individually). You can make groups (and invite each student into that group by sharing the link Memrise creates) and perhaps that would give you the ranking for each individual class. I made groups on my teachers accounts but I don't think they check them much. I think that next school year I will make the groups on my own account then I can check their progress better.