Physical Geography: Perusall Instructions

Objective: To actively comment on the assigned readings in order to encourage critical thinking
on course topics.
We will use the tool in Canvas to make comments.

Step 1. Review the Rubric.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Canvas assignment page and read the rubric so you know how
you will be evaluated for this assignment.

Step 2. Read the Reading.

The link to the reading is shown below. You may download the pdf to your device or read it in
Canvas.

Step 3. Access Perusall.

Click on Perusall in the left-hand menu of the course.

Step 4. Access the correct chapter reading in Perusall.

Be sure to click on the correct chapter file. (The readings are found underneath the
Assignments heading). After you click on the file, click “Work on assignment”.
If prompted, go through the Perusall tour.

Read the text boxes and click “Next” after each one.

At the end of the tour, click “End tour”.

Step 5. Post Your Comments.

Make at least three comments on the reading. I recommend that you type and save your
comments in a google doc (or word or pages document) first and then copy them to Perusall.

The comments can be any of the following:

• questions you have about the text.
• how the text relates to a topic we’ve learned during class.
• emphasis on a really important idea (with explanation of why the idea is important).

Comments should be two to three sentences in length. If you are asking a question about the
text, the question would be one sentence—add one or two additional sentences to explain
why you are asking the question.

To make a comment, use your mouse to highlight the text or graphic that you are commenting
on. Then copy and paste your comment in the “Current conversation” textbox. Press
enter/return on your keyboard to submit your comment.

If you are having trouble with submitting your comments in Perusall, you may go to:
https://forms.gle/vCJL2Nqja4kPv8976 and submit the form three times—one time for each one
of your comments. (Perusall may not work well when using a smartphone).

Step 6. Reply to a Classmate.

Reply to a classmate in two to three sentences. Your reply should be respectful, encouraging,
informed, and add to the conversation (Barrett-Fox 2020, n.p.):

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 Being respectful means that you do not use profanity or belittling language. Even when
you disagree with someone, focus on the content of their argument as comments or
insinuations about character or ability are never appropriate. Before you disagree, see if
there is something in their post that you can agree with; even if you can’t agree with any
of their claims, affirming that you understand their feelings or perspective helps the
conversation move forward.

Encouraging means that you find what is worthy in someone else’s post and draw
attention to it. But simply saying “Good point!” isn’t enough. You also need to
encourage them to develop their ideas more by asking them a question or suggesting a
“next step” for thinking about at topic.

Informed means that your posts demonstrate that you have done the work to prepare
for the conversation. You should have read/watched/listened to/practiced everything
assigned for the week before you speak about it. Don’t waste time by making off-topic,
irrelevant, or uniformed posts.

Replies that add to the conversation do more than repeat course content that learned
elsewhere or affirm or disagree with other people’s opinions. Simply saying “I agree” or
“I disagree” doesn’t help us learn. If you get stuck with your writing, re-read what
you’ve already written and then add one of these sentences to the end of the
conversation:

• I think this because…

• The part of this week’s class that helped me realize this was…
• I wasn’t expecting to think this way because… but now I do because…
• I can see how someone might thing differently about this topic if they…
• My perspective on this is different from some of my classmates’ because…
• This conversation makes me ask the question…
• I wanted to learn more about this, so I found a source article about it that says…

Step 7. Check for Replies

If someone replies to one of your comments, reply to their comment. Your reply should be at
least one sentence in length. The goal is to acknowledge that your professor or a classmate
took the time to engage with your thoughts. If no one replied to your comment, then you may
ignore this step. You can use the @ symbol followed by the person’s name so they will be
notified of your reply.

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