YOUNGSVILLE, North Carolina - Not every kid falls in love with books. Johnny Walters, who teaches language arts to seventh-graders in this rural community surrounded by forests and tobacco fields, had a hunch he could win over some of his reluctant readers. Drawing on the power of technology and the savvy of a public opinion expert, he's managed to change some minds.

Before he introduced the novel that his class would be reading and discussing, Walters conducted an online reading attitude survey using a site called Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com*). To weigh in with their opinions, students had to find time to "squeeze into the school's computer lab," he says, because access to technology is limited for the 630 students at Cedar Creek Middle School. But his teaching colleagues were supportive of the project and made time, "even when it wasn't our turn" to use the lab.

Portable keyboards helped increase the students' interest in writing.

Survey results confirmed the teacher's hunch: "Not only did many students not enjoy reading, but most dislike journaling their responses to what they read."

Next, Walters passed out copies of the novel Holes by Louis Sachar. The story is set at Camp Green Lake, where "bad boys" are sent to dig holes in the ground and, presumably, get turned into good boys. Protagonist Stanley Yelnats, an innocent lad sent to bad-boy camp by mistake, uncovers a mystery that sets an adventure tale in motion.

Normally, students would write journal entries about a class reading assignment. But this time, Walters told students, "instead of using their journals, pens, and notebook paper, they would write all their thoughts and journal entries online, on a message board I had set up. I would respond, and then they would be able to reply to each other and to my comments." Because most students have limited access to computers outside of school, Walters made time for them to use portable keyboards before class or during the first 15 minutes of class time.

In addition to the writing assignments, students also came together as a group for what Walters calls "a Socratic seminar, which is a thinking/reader-response based discussion group. The concept is inquiry-based. Students begin with questions and develop their ideas by sharing them with the rest of the class." To make the discussion experience more stimulating, Walters posted "open-ended divergent questions on the discussion board" the day before the seminars were to take place. In order to get their "entrance tickets" to attend the Socratic event, students had to respond online to at least three questions before the seminar began.

As part of the project, students also created culminating projects of their own design. These ranged from electronic presentations to wall murals to videotaped songs they wrote about the book.

At the end of the unit, it was time for a follow-up survey to see if students' attitudes were changed by the experiences. Reports Walters: "Nearly all students said they enjoyed and understood the reading more, because they were interested in the way they interacted with it. Most said they never wanted to go back to solely using pen and paper for their work, and all said the experience helped them learn new reading strategies." Walters saw evidence that students were "making personal connections with the text, making connections between texts, and using visualization as a strategy for understanding."

One girl, for instance, had struggled with reading comprehension "and rarely if ever did well on standardized tests and quizzes." Early in this project, however, "she had an epiphany while working on her online response to the message board. She told me she could actually see the shoes in the story, falling from the sky, in her mind. Visualizations like this were something she rarely experienced while reading. She looked up and said to me that writing her response to the online prompt helped her to actually see it. And when she 'saw' it in her head, she began to understand what was happening in the book. She said, 'Ahhhh, I get it now. So that's what's going on.'"

The teacher's response? "I was ecstatic," says Walters. "I was watching a nonreader's metamorphosis into a thoughtful, careful reader with a new reading strategy: visualization. It brought me goose bumps!"

Walters, with a degree in philosophy, describes himself as a teacher who "slipped into the classroom" through North Carolina's lateral entry program. He's now working on a master's degree. "Most students do not have computer access at home," he says, "so this makes their encounters with technology at school all the more important to them."

Having students use portable keyboards for writing assignments helped "remove the dread associated with the writing process," Walters adds. "If they don't enjoy writing because they dislike putting pen to paper, then I want them to put their fingers on a keyboard. Not only do most students not mind using the keyboard, they actually want to. Thus, I am eliciting desire from them, enthusiasm for a writing medium just as effective as pen and paper."

The online discussion board also allowed Walters to keep a better record of students' ideas. "I have a complete record of the students' responses. Students can view the thoughts of others, respond, re-respond to the responses, and so on. And I can instantly respond, any time of day or night."

For a more detailed look at the lesson plans and resources for "Digging Deep With Literature e-Circles" see the unit plan, http://educate.intel.com/en/ProjectDesign/UnitPlanIndex/LiteratureECircles/.