This study explored how one third-grade teacher facilitated daily peer-led discussions around articles from a local newspaper. Two students were assigned to select and summarize an article, then lead a whole-class discussion with the teacher's help. The teacher differentially scaffolded engagement with newspaper articles, adaptively responding to different pairs of student-reporters as he corrected comprehension failures and guided summarization attempts. The teacher played two main roles during the whole-class discussions: facilitating construction of meaning by acting as an intermediary between students and the complex texts, and supporting students' self-management of conversation by acting as a discussion moderator. Illustrative examples are provided and implications for practice are discussed.