thinking about genre study

Recently, my school district has taken a different direction with our curriculum. We're focusing on the concept-based approach, as opposed to the standards-based approach.
This switch has definitely affected the way we're doing business in the classroom. In Language Arts, we've chosen one genre to study each quarter. The hope and expectation is that, within the genre study, we will be able to hit on the valuable (and CSAP test-able!) skills students need in order to write that genre, and that those skills will be transferrable to other writing tasks. The other hope is that this approach will be embraced by students as being more practical and compelling. That's the hope.
As with any systemic change like this, there is a lot of confusion, trepidation, and sideways glances from the interested parties being asked to change their ways. Teachers are mostly positive and willing to make the shift, but it's not easy, emotionally or pedegogically. We're in our fifth month of implementation and it's a thumpy-bumpy success, so far. More later...