PLENK2010 All teachers need to know how to teach reading and writing.

Today, in the Elluminate meeting I remarked that my theory of education is that all teachers need to learn how to teach reading and writing.  I speak from the experience of finding that it is not the subject matter that defeats the student, but the gaps in reading and writing skills of the learner.  It does the student no good for the teacher to repeatedly say "Try again.  The answer is in the book."  The student does not know how to locate the information.  That is not stupidity on the part of the student--at some point in time for some reason there was a failure to communicate or to practise.  There is no sending the student back to Grade 5 or Grade 7 when that lesson was first "taught" but not "caught", so simply use the teachable moment to show the student now how to find the data.