For the past three years, I’ve used Perusall on and off in my high school classes. It’s a tool I keep coming back to, especially when I want students to engage more deeply with reading and each other. When I focus and help students get going, Perusall can be a strong tool for building collaborative reading habits.
Perusall is a social annotation platform. It turns a reading assignment into a space for students to highlight, comment, ask questions, and respond to each other in real time. It works well in classes like Professional Communication, Audio/Video Production, and Dual Enrollment Speech because it encourages students to interact with the content and each other.
Getting students set up can take time. Some terms I’ve seen full buy-in and strong participation. Other times, the onboarding is frustrating. Account creation, tech access, and introducing another platform can be a barrier. That’s why I don’t use it every semester. But when I take the time to onboard students properly and model how to use it, the payoff is worth it.
Here’s what I’ve found helps:
I start with a short piece of text. That might be an article, a short chapter, or even a classroom policy. I join the thread. I post comments and respond like a participant to model the kind of engagement I want to see. I use it as formative assessment. It helps me track who’s reading, what they’re asking, and where they need more support. I grade for thoughtful engagement, not right answers. The goal is conversation, not completion.
When Perusall works, students read more carefully. Quieter students have more chances to contribute. The class enters discussion already warmed up. And students begin to ask better questions because they’ve already heard each other’s thoughts.
Perusall isn’t something I rely on all the time. But it’s a solid tool when I want to slow down and have students really sit with a piece of text. If you teach high school and want students to engage more with reading, I suggest trying it with one unit or one assignment. It can make reading more social, more visible, and more meaningful.