If you give students the option to read what they enjoy, they’re more likely to actually open a book. That was the thinking behind a reading challenge issued in Carver Middle School’s AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination) classes.

Thanks to grants from The Dorothy B. Crooker Steves Foundation, the C. Warren Barry Foundation and the Fred B. & Helen F. Monar Foundation, the AVID teacher purchased a wide array of titles for the classroom library and she discovered that the students responded to the reading challenge with enthusiasm and enjoyment.