Orchestrating Learning: How Junior Great Books Transforms Classroom Discourse

The Conductor in the Classroom

When Brookins reflects on his first encounter with Junior Great Books, he describes it as a moment of professional clarity. “I remember that summer going to the training and saying ‘Oh, this is me. This is how I teach,’ ” Brookins recalls. “It’s not foreign. It’s actually codifying for me what I’ve been trying to work through and figure out.”

What particularly resonated with Brookins was the framework Junior Great Books provided for facilitating meaningful classroom discussions. “When we did the Shared Inquiry™ discussion during professional development, it hit me that you just don’t allow discussion to happen—as a practitioner you make discussion happen,” he explains.

This realization led to a powerful metaphor that continues to guide his work. “As the teacher, in facilitating discussion I am creating music. This is my orchestra. I am that conductor,” says Brookins. This concept of teacher as conductor—rather than lecturer—represents a fundamental shift from traditional classroom dynamics where teachers deliver information rather than cultivate conversations.

“Discussion is the heart of the classroom,” Brookins asserts. “It is the hardest thing that most teachers do not know how to do very well. It is why discussions in classrooms are often very flat and don’t really get at core ideas.”

From Expert Listener to Expert Facilitator

What makes the Junior Great Books approach so distinctive is its emphasis on developing teachers’ capacity to listen deeply to student responses. “Junior Great Books really taught me that I needed to be an expert listener,” Brookins explains. “I found myself in those Shared Inquiry sessions really listening to children, taking notes on what they said, not responding but truly building my ear.”

This intentional listening transforms how teachers engage with students. “You have to have the social-emotional intelligence to read the room, to know what kind of moves you have to make, when consensus is needed, when disagreement is good.”

Worthy Texts That Spark Rich Conversation

A crucial element of the Junior Great Books program is the careful selection of texts that naturally invite deeper thinking and conversation. For Brookins, this was a revelation that aligned perfectly with his existing philosophy.

“I was always taught from the very beginning, taught and believed, that I had to choose texts that were worthy of discussion,” he explains. “I really wanted kids to know that reading is about exploring the human experience. And so when I got introduced to Junior Great Books, it was just a perfect fit for me. It gave me what I needed all in one place.”

The quality of these texts removes a significant burden from teachers while enhancing the learning experience. “Junior Great Books gave me a breather. I could trust that the texts were going to be worthy. I could trust that the texts would be rich,” Brookins says. “By just taking that mental effort away from me, it allowed me to really focus more on the instruction—and helping my children grapple with complex ideas.”

This emphasis on meaningful content creates natural motivation for student engagement. “I never had a lot of issues with kids not talking because the text made the kids talk,” Brookins observes. “When you talk about academic discussion, do you choose texts that are worthy of discussion and are going to get us talking, or are you just choosing texts that have no meaning, that have no meat?”

Supporting Children in Engaging with Complex Texts

Brookins also notes how Junior Great Books taught him to help students engage with text more strategically through targeted annotation. “When I went to that inservice, I was taught coding,” he explains, referring to the second, close reading activity Junior Great Books employed. Instead of more general prompts children receive to underline what is important to them in a text, he observes that “in Junior Great Books you’re using different codes that really align to concepts in texts.”

This structured approach to text analysis—now present in the Move! Note! Share! second reading activities—gives students concrete tools for making meaning. “I began to really realize, ‘Oh, my goodness, this actually supports students in knowing what’s important; it prioritizes the most critical information,'” says Brookins.

From Classroom Practice to School Transformation

The impact of Junior Great Books extended beyond Brookins’s own classrooms. When he became an assistant principal at Marquette School of Excellence in 2013, he brought the program initially to sixth through eighth graders, then extended it to third through fifth graders as well.

“I found myself in a place where I began to start coaching teachers on ‘What is Shared Inquiry?’ Coaching teachers on ‘What is Close Reading?’ Coaching teachers on how you really facilitate discourse,” Brookins recalls. “And that was one of the most powerful experiences of seeing something that started in my classroom, I brought schoolwide.”

Teachers embraced the structure that Junior Great Books provided. “Teachers found themselves feeling more structure—they had a framework. They were able to know that on day one we’ll be doing the first reading and sharing questions, then we’re focusing on vocabulary, the Shared Inquiry discussion is coming, and after that there’s a writing piece,” Brookins explains. “It really gave them a framework for how to approach complex texts.”

A Foundation for Lifelong Teaching Practice

Years after his initial training, Brookins still considers Junior Great Books foundational to his educational philosophy and practice. “Junior Great Books is really a part of my story because it is actually the framework. It has the principles that I have carried with me even today,” he reflects.

What makes Junior Great Books particularly valuable is its focus on the heart of effective teaching: meaningful conversation about ideas that matter. As Brookins puts it, “It’s not about you being right, it’s about you engaging in discourse with other human beings.”

This philosophy transforms not just how teachers teach, but how students experience learning. “I think that is what teachers are missing, that’s why kids hate school, that’s why it’s so boring, it’s because we’re not inquisitive,” Brookins argues. “I like talking to kids and hearing what they have to say and helping them shape their thinking, their knowledge.”

For Brookins, the impact of Junior Great Books cannot be overstated: “It’s not just an impact, it’s actually a part of the fabric of my instructional practice.” With the key components of worthy texts, structured discussion, and the teacher as expert listener and conductor, Junior Great Books continues to transform classrooms into communities of engaged, thoughtful learners.