Faculty Reading Groups

CAT’s faculty reading groups are cross-disciplinary gatherings, offering faculty, adjuncts, and faculty development partners an opportunity to meet and discuss books, on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning, in a relaxed and safe environment.

Reading groups typically last three weeks (one 2-hour meeting per week) and are limited to 10 participants. Faculty may participate in only one reading group per semester. Registration is on a first-come-first-served basis. Faculty who agree to participate in a reading group receive a complimentary copy of the book. Reading groups are facilitated by a member of the CAT staff, a faculty fellow or special guest.

We hope that you’ll consider joining a faculty reading group. It’s a great way to meet colleagues from across the university, and be inspired by their ideas and teaching experiences. You’ll find this semester’s list of reading group books below each with a link to register and instructions on how to get your complimentary copy of the book.

Please note: To ensure productive discussion, participants should be able to commit to all scheduled meetings; we ask that you review your calendar to confirm you can attend before signing up.

book jacket for the norton-guide

 

Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching 

Theme(s):
Inclusive Teaching

Tuesday, February 6th
Tuesday, February 20th
Tuesday, March 5th
Tuesday, March 19th

1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom


Participants will receive the Zoom link and instructions for book pick-up via email. 

 

 

screenshot-2023-12-18-150500.png

 

Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding

Theme(s):
Learning Centered Teaching

Thursday, February 22nd
Thursday, March 7th
Thursday, March 21st
Thursday, April 4th

2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Hybrid


Participants will receive meeting details and instructions for book pick-up via email. 

 

 

Below you will find a list of our previous books by year.

  • 2023

    Spring 2023

    • Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto
    • Designing and Delivering Effective Online Instruction

    Fall 2023 

    • Navigating Difficult Moments in Teaching Diversity and Social Justice
  • 2022

    Spring 2022

    • Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning
    • Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
    • The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine
    • How to be Antiracist

     

    Summer 2022

    Learner-Centered Teaching: Putting the Research on Learning into Practice

     

    Fall 2022

    • What Inclusive Instructors Do
    • Atomic Habits
    • The Aims of Higher Education
    • Navigating Difficult Moments in Teaching Diversity and Social Justice
    • Reach Everyone Teach Everyone
  • 2021

    Spring 2021

    • How Learning Works
    • Dare to Lead
    • Let's Talk About Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Teaching Series  

     

    Summer 2021

    • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
    • Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
    • Using Zines to Support Learner-Centered Pedagogy
    • Equity Talk to Equity Walk: A Guide for Campus-Based Leadership and Practice

     

    Fall 2021

    • Grading for Equity
    • Changemakers: Educating with Purpose 
    • Inner Work of Racial Justice
    • Online Teaching at its Best

     

  • 2020

    Spring 2020

    • Deep Work
    • Assessing and Improving Your Teaching

     

    Summer 2020

    • Cheating Lessons
    • Teaching the Whole Student

     

  • 2019

    Spring 2019

    • Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization
    • A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
    • How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
    • The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion 

     

    Fall 2019

    • Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty 
    • Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning
    • Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
    • The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
    • Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher
    • Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
    • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
  • 2018

    Spring 2018

    • Creating self-regulated learners
    • The Spark of Learning
    • The Meaningful Writing Project
    • Intellectual Empathy
    • The Courage to Teach
    • Minds Online
    • A Whole New Mind

    Summer 2018

    • The Contemplative Mind in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
    • Assessing and Improving Your Teaching: Strategies and Rubrics for Faculty Growth and Student Learning

    Fall 2018 

    • Using Simulations to Promote Learning in Higher Education
    • The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness
    • Teaching at its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors
    • Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race
  • 2017

    Spring 2017

    • Mindset
    • Blind Spot
    • Minds Online
    • Teach Students How to Learn
    • What The Best College Teachers Do
    • My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture
    • Collaborative Imagination

    Summer 2017

    • Spark of Learning
    • Creating self-regulated learners
    • Learner Centered Teaching

    Fall 2017

    • What the Best College Teachers Do
    • Teaching the Whole Student
    • The College Fear Factor Reading Group
    • Team based Learning
  • 2016

    Spring 2016

    • Why Don't Students Like School?
    • Mindset
    • Specifications Grading
    • Minds Online
    • The College Fear Factor
    • Blind Spot
    • The Shallows
    • Make it Stick Reading Group
    • Teaching First-Year College Students

    Summer 2016

    • Cheating Lessons

    Fall 2016

    • Engaging Ideas
    • Team Based Learning
    • How Learning Works
    • Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher
    • Teaching to Transgress
    • Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain
    • Small Teaching Reading Group
    • Learner Centered Teaching
  • 2015

    Spring 2015

    • Online Teaching
    • The College Fear Factor
    • How Learning Works
    • How College Works
    • Drive
    • Getting Started With Team-Based Learning
    • Why Don't Students Like School?
    • What It Means for the Classroom
    • Student Engagement Techniques
    • Presumed Incompetent
    • Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with
    • Technology

    Fall 2015

    • What The Best College Teachers Do
    • Effective Instruction for STEM Disciplines
    • How Learning Works
    • Learner Centered Teaching
    • Engaging IDEAS
    • Cheating Lessons
    • Collaborative Learning Techniques
  • 2014

    Spring 2014

    • Paying for the Party
    • Cheating Lessons
    • Now You See It
    • Quiet
    • Blindspot
    • Team-Based Learning
    • Effective Instruction for STEM Disciplines

    Summer 2014

    • Made to Stick
    • Teaching First-Year Students

    Fall 2014

    • Mindset
    • The Online Teaching Survival Guide
    • Faculty Working Group: Teaching Hybrid
    • Classes
    • The Storytelling Animal
  • 2013

    Fall 2013

    • Mindset
    • Effective Instruction for STEM Disciplines
    • Stereotype Threat
    • Teaching First-Year Students
    • Engaging Ideas
    • Pedagogy of Freedom

Suggestions

Have you recently read something inspiring or thought-provoking?
Would you like CAT to bring back a title we haven't offered in a while?
We’d like to know… send us your suggestions.