Gentrification -- or housing patterns -- is a great topic to explore with youth, precisely because it is both in the news and the stories represent historical patterns that can be studied deeply. Similarly, this is a teaching moment that can be about what is happening in the lives of youth in our classes and built on the strategies of placed-based education and writing. I started to pull some of this together around Renee Watson's Youth Adult novel Close To Home and Linda Christensen's work with the Oregon Writing Project and beyond with the Roots of Gentrification. See http://youthvoices.net/home1 I'd love to finish some of this curriculum development -- but only when teaching the material with students, not in the abastract.