EN
Engaging students during the reading of a complex text is a difficult task for any educator. Digital backchanneling, a Web 2.0 technology, is one tool that can promote: student engagement, low risk participation, learning community development, digital citizenship, an opportunity for formative assessment, and timely response to students’ questions. The purpose of observing the effect of digital backchanneling in an English 11 classroom was to measure the level of students’ engagement with the reading of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Student engagement increased to 100% when digital backchanneling was introduced during a performance-based lesson.