Pondering

The NCTE Blog post Writing for Our Students my students and their writing ability. My school is not a "school of choice", but rather the only option for most of my students. It is a constant struggle for me to balance teaching what I know they need to know and teaching what they should know (aka the basics). While these two areas, I think, should be the same, I find that I am battling more and more with students who are not where they should be in terms of reading/writing...speaking/listening...viewing/representing... etc. This is frustrating. This is hard.  One-on-one seems to be the best way that I can meet the needs of my students individually, but is there enough time in the day?!