More Ideas on How to Thwart the Guessing Habit

Through the years I’ve dealt with students who, at least initially, seemed genuinely unable to stop guessing at words. They eventually overcame the problem, but I watched, studied, and puzzled over their struggles. I told students that we were now changing the way their brains process information. I often became aware of what I called “the brain switch”—the moment in time when students began to truly focus and see words on a page and recognize patterns. It was an intriguing phenomenon.

I’ve heard teachers say that some students can’t learn by using phonics. I’ve been mystified by this statement. It dawned on me finally that a “brain switch” must occur—that is, in each student, the necessary brain processes must be activated.

Recent research based on magnetic imaging reveals the parts of the brain that light up when a student reads. One study showed that a dyslexic student’s brain lit up only on the top right side, whereas a skilled reader’s brain lit up in the upper back portion of the head, on both the left and right sides. Other research shows that phonics instruction done for 45 minutes every morning over the span of one school year will change the area of the brain that lights up from the unskilled area to the skilled area.

Guessing involves one or more of the following strategies:

1. use the context of a story to help figure out the words;
2. look at the pictures on the page for clues;
3. think and remember when or where a word has been seen in the past;
4. key on certain letters in a word but ignore the others; or
5. memorize new words one word at a time.

Guessing, initially, is easier for a student than pattern reading, as the student just says the first word that comes to mind. But guessing is hit and miss, misleads, and actually (ironically) requires more concentration. Once pattern reading is established, your student will find reading much easier and definitely more enjoyable. Pattern reading with emphasis on comprehension is by far superior to guessing or memorizing.

At this point, your student might have only a little pattern knowledge and might be struggling to be a disciplined, left-to-right reader. While he is working through our pattern-intensive, very structured curriculum, it is a good idea to limit or reduce his outside reading, lest he slip back into old guessing habits when he encounters patterns he hasn’t yet learned. Eliminating outside reading may be unrealistic, but do what you can to keep him centered on the need to read, not guess. As previously mentioned, if outside reading is unavoidable, at least organize your day or schedule so that our lessons come first or are at a time significantly separated from the other reading.

The habit of guessing can be replaced with the skill of real reading. Doing the lessons on a daily basis will speed up the process.