AP Literature students participated in a series of real-time online discussions to complement the in-class conversations they were having about "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." Thus, the front channel was comprised of the students who were discussing the class text aloud, and the backchannel was the online conversation the rest of the class was having simultaneously. At Rosewood High School (all names are pseudonyms), a one-to-one lab school associated with a Midwestern university, technology plays a significant role in instruction. Rosewood High checks laptops out to each of its approximately 600 students every fall for use both at school and at home. In the front channel, students learn how to constructively engage in a discussion, heeding nonverbal cues, waiting for appropriate times to speak and listen, and building knowledge together. The backchannel encourages collaborative thinking, but it also provides a safer venue for more introverted students to participate and to have their voices integrated into the class conversation. Importantly, providing both channels offers students additional sources for developing deeper connections to the texts they are reading and to each other's ideas.