Literacy is the foundation for success in school and society. An essential goal of every school is to help every student read, write and think critically. Dedicated teachers are the catalyst for reaching this goal. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) developed a literacy professional learning model to better support these dedicated teachers. SREB's powerful literacy practices stem from and expand upon the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) instructional framework. LDC is a vehicle for developing reading, writing and thinking skills within a variety of academic disciplines, not just in English language arts courses. When teachers help students become literate in their discipline, they ultimately strengthen students' learning of the content and the subject matter. SREB provides professional development to educators in how to use these powerful literacy practices to change how teachers teach and students learn. These practices empower teachers from various disciplines -- including English language arts, science, social studies and career and technical education -- to collaborate, plan lessons together and create more relevant assignments that engage and excite students. The teacher success stories in this publication illustrate how SREB partnered with states, districts, schools and teachers to immerse students in grade-level assignments that raise achievement. These stories also show how implementing this literacy model can be both challenging and rewarding. These stories highlight only a few of the teachers who rose to the challenge and persevered.