The question posed in this analysis is: What is the relationship between text-centered dialogue and reading comprehension? This article examines one student's behaviors while reading challenging texts. This qualitative case study explored the verbal behaviors of Robert (pseudonym), a seventh-grade student receiving reading intervention. As his text-centered dialogue increased, his comprehension increased as well. Over the course of 11 weeks, Robert (pseudonym) improved his success rate in an online reading intervention program from 3 successful attempts mid-year to 31 successful attempts by the end of May. Using a comprehension-as-sense-making theoretical frame, findings suggest that providing at-risk adolescents opportunities to engage in dialogic strategic behaviors could encourage successful problem solving when working with challenging texts, an asset-oriented approach to intervention.