This webpage follows one group of students in Emily Venson’s ninth grade Humanities class as they read Princess, a novel set in the Middle East. Each day, Emily provided a “mini-lesson” focusing on a key reading or discussion skill. After the mini-lesson, students used those skills in small group discussions about the book. Emily supported the students’ reading and their discussions by providing them with guides for taking notes, and also collected those notes so she could monitor the progress of each group. The unit culminated with a group presentation about the representation of conflicts in their book (read full overview).