There are a lot of findings in psychology that suggest boys and girls develop differently and at different rates in their schooling years. There's a reason why boys are more likely to give up interest in school early and fail... and why girls give up on math and science in the high school years... some nature, some nurture.
For starting the discussion I'll bring up this from Scientific American.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...-with-language
Apparently girls learn language in a more efficient manner that is more abstract (not socking since girls have a more efficient connection between the left and right hemispheres).
This causes girls to learn language easily through either hearing speech or reading... while boys are likely to need both.
Is this something that can be applied in education?
Perhaps it's best to teach this in a manner that suits the boys... as repitition certainly isn't going to hurt the girls' understanding.