possible breakthrough--motivation!

So there's a chance I've had a small breakthrough.  A high status kid brought in a book he was excited about for book clubs.  It's about a kid who finds out he has cancer and only has a year to live.  Anyway, lots of people were excited to read it and Xavier was one of them. I knew it was too hard for him, and after hearing my groups' responses, I was really struggling whether to put him in it. So I decided to give them a copied chapter and have them read it to make sure it was okay for htem before I bought it. They all did it and said it was good.  Xavier read it straight through, totally focused. And, get this, even better was USING THE READING STRATEGIES WITHOUT KNOWING IT!! He would lean over and ask his friends questions, he was making notes as he read, he kept reading without givng up. He admitted it was a little hard for him, but that he really wanted to read it. So, I'm going to stick with it. My gut decided that if I switched him to a different group, that's not with his friends, that's easier, he would just get discouraged.  So I had a private chat with him to tell him it would be a lot of work. He said that was fine. Oh, and he wrote a very complete summary of the chapter that I would give a five to on an exit ticket.  I'll upload.

So, we'll see how it goes, but he seems committed now.  Motivation rears its head. as does peer relationships, right?