I don't think enough attention is given to the differences between the boys and girls in our classrooms. I'm thinking of middle schoolers mostly because that's my teaching experience. Middle schoolers to begin with are a "different breed", but if you look at each gender, new doors of consideration come into view. Perceptions differ between genders, what motivates them, how they view achievement and success is unique.

It would be interesting to poll a couple hundred middle schoolers (half boys/half girls) and see what they have to say about writing, how they view portfolios, what's their preferred writing genre/reading genre, what motivates them to read and write, what senerio is best for them when reading/writing.

We (teachers) spend a lot of time talking about what we think will be best for our students, but I think as much time should be dedicated to getting their thoughts.