Academic discussion can create space for student voice and active negotiation of text meaning in the classroom. However, teachers hoping to use academic discussion may find it difficult to draw learners into these discussions if students do not feel a sense of agency--a particular concern for multilingual students or those designated as having limited or interrupted formal education, who may have shorter histories of participation in classroom discourse. In this article, we draw on observation, artifact, and interview data to explore an upper-elementary classroom of newcomer multilingual learners, where reflexive academic discussion serves as a foundational element of exploring and developing students' agency. The authors present instructional approaches reading educators can use to weave together reflexive and text-focused academic discussion in support of students' developing agency.