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«Back to all edWebinarsBuild Text-Based Insight Through Academic Discourse: From Checking to Constructing
Tuesday, April 21, 2026 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Mitchell Brookins, Former Teacher, Current Educational Consultant, Brookins Consulting
Moderated by Pam Austin, Professional Learning Facilitators Manager, Voyager Sopris Learning
Sponsored by Voyager Sopris Learning
Learn more about earning a CE certificate and our accessibility features.
Does classroom discussion feel like pulling teeth? Or maybe your students are talking, but the conversation still isn’t as deep, insightful, or meaningful as you know it could be. If you’ve ever imagined a classroom where you and your students can truly get lost in a text—wrestling with ideas, building insight, and shaping understanding together—this edWebinar is for you.
Skilled readers capture the essence of a text, and discussion plays a critical role in helping them make sense of it.
In this edWebinar, Dr. Mitchell Brookins will show how to move beyond questions that check for understanding and toward using academic discourse to construct it. You’ll learn how to identify critical ideas in a text, guide student thinking using cognitive routines, and press for clarity so students move beyond first answers to deeper, text-based insight.
You’ll learn how to:
- Identify the critical ideas in a text that are worth stopping and building around
- Use cognitive routines to probe student thinking and generate strong inferences
- Press and refine responses so students develop clear, text-based understanding
This edWebinar will be of interest to grades 5–12 teachers, librarians, school leaders, and district leaders.
About the Presenter
Dr. Mitchell Brookins is a literacy practitioner and national education consultant with more than 20 years of experience across K–12 education as a teacher, instructional coach, school administrator, and district leader. His work focuses on strengthening reading comprehension instruction and supporting students in engaging with complex texts.
As a school administrator in New Orleans, Dr. Brookins led instructional improvement efforts that produced measurable gains, including raising DIBELS proficiency from 43% to 72%, increasing LEAP performance by 16 percentage points, and improving school letter grades from “D” to “C” within one year. He now contributes to national literacy conversations through conference presentations and media appearances, including Amplify’s Science of Reading podcast Beyond My Years (2026), The Reading League Conference, and Keys to Literacy. As Managing Director at Leading Educators, he supports districtwide literacy improvement efforts across multiple school systems nationwide.
About the Moderator
Pam Austin, Professional Learning Facilitators Manager for Voyager Sopris Learning, has over 35 years of experience as an educator. She has worked as a Professional Learning Facilitator Manager with over 17 years of experience in training and supporting districts in various literacy and numeracy interventions for Voyager Sopris Learning in addition to delivering LETRS professional development sessions. She has also shared her love of proven VSL solutions as a Product Marketing Manager when she began her role as an EDVIEW360 podcast host in 2019 and continues to this day. Her goal is to aid teachers in changing the lives of students so that they not only become proficient and successful learners but also individuals confident in pursuing personal and professional life goals.
She previously held the role of Literacy Specialist at the Center for Development and Learning (CDL) now the Center for Literacy and Learning. As an educator in the New Orleans Public Schools for 14 years, she served as an elementary teacher, a reading interventionist, a school-based reading coach, and a central office field literacy facilitator. These varying roles allowed her to gain a myriad of experiences that has enhanced her ability to work in collaboration with other educators, schools, and districts for impactful professional learning. Pam’s first steps into a lifelong career as an educator began as a fourth-grade teacher in a small school in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. And the journey continues…
Learn more about earning a CE certificate and our accessibility features.
Join the Teaching Reading and Writing community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
Voyager Sopris Learning® is the specialist in reading, writing, and math intervention. Fully focused on intervention, we have established four decades of results that demonstrate the efficacy of our solutions. Providing a holistic offering of reading, writing, and math interventions and assessments, our solutions help educators create strong, sustainable foundations to ensure academic success for all students.
