Student Engagement and modeling

As a Title I teacher, I am using a new system this year that really promotes student engagement. We do a variety of activities for each lesson including working with letters and words. The students manipulate magnetic letters, read new books and reread books previously introduced every day, and do some type of writing activity on most days. Usually, the writing pertains to what they have read that day or the past few days.   The activities are brief and require students to be engaged as we move from one thing to another.  With  the small sizes of the groups, it is easy to determine if all are participating and giving their best effort. 
I have been working quite a bit on modeling the thought process when discussing what students have read.  One little girl in particular has a problem with rambling answers that don't show an understanding of the question that was asked.  I have modeled concise answers and non-answers to help her see the difference.  Then I have the group practice answering questions about what they have read.  Yesterday, when asked about the story we had just read, she summarized it in one clear sentence.  I felt like we were actually on the right track!  Modeling can really help students see things in a different way.