Spring 2025 Reading Circle:

“Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
~From Mary Oliver's "Sometimes"

Oliver’s pithy advice provides the pathway for this book circle. If we want our students to tell us about their learning, they will need to first pay attention and be astonished. Focus and engagement are essential for meaningful reading and writing activities. In our group, we’ll discuss a selection of readings, videos, and recordings that focus our attention on attention, that provide advice on how to foster and engage in knowledge-producing work requiring periods of concentration and that offer practical and adaptable strategies for use with our students and ourselves. For each of our meetings, we’ll allot time to talk through the material and to consider how they apply in our own teaching and personal contexts. All are welcome.

Our guilt-free book circle—no reading quizzes given—will meet four times on Friday mornings over the course of the Spring semester. Each meeting will be in hybrid mode, which includes an in-person option for those who would like to gather and discuss materials over coffee, tea, and baked goods and a zoom option for those who would like to join remotely.

Schedule:

Discussion 1: February 7, 2025, 9:00 am-10:00 am, Room 12, 216 Pillsbury

Excerpts from Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do about It (James Lang, Basic Book, 2020)

Select Reading:  “Introduction” (1-22); “Chapter 4: Communities of Attention” (95-125); “Chapter 7: Signature Attention Activities” (174-196)

Audio: Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast (Episode 332): Distracted (34:25)

Discussion 2: March 7, 2025, 9:00 am-10:00 am, Room 12, 216 Pillsbury

Excerpts from Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Cal Newport, Grand Central Publishing, 2016)

Select Reading: “Rule #1: Work Deeply” (95-154) 

Video: Core Idea: Deep Work (16:51) 

Discussion 3: April 4, 2025, 9:00-10:00, Room 12, 216 Pillsbury

Excerpts from Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (Gloria Mark, Hanover Square Press, 2023)

Select Reading:  “Chapter 3: Types of Attention” (65-86); “Part III: Focus, Rhythm and Balance” (245-298)

Video: Gloria Mark, Ph.D. and David Epstein: Attention Span: Find Focus, Fight Distraction 

Discussion 4: May 2, 2025, 9:00-10:00, Room 12, 216 Pillsbury

Excerpts from Make it Stick: The Science of Learning (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel Harvard Press, 2014)

Select Reading:  “Chapter 3: Mix up Your Practice” (46-66); “Chapter 8: Make it Stick” (200-254)

Audio: Cult of Pedagogy. Episode 21