The GHCS was awarded the Striving Readers Grant for 2018-2020 with a focus on expanding the Early Literacy Ohio pilot project at Maple Leaf. The scaling up includes the other elementary buildings, at risk students and students with disabilities at the Middle School. In addition, the grant is exploring Disciplinary Literacy at the Middle and High School levels with the social studies and history teachers. 

On Nov. 6, 2018, elementary and specific secondary teachers participated in the first of several, ongoing professional development experiences around literacy. At the elementary level, teachers were engaged in building their knowledge around early literacy and the foundational skills of learning to read using the LETRS professional development series. LETRS stands for: "Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling". At the secondary level, middle school and high school social studies teachers were actively engaged with learning about "Disciplinary Literacy". Dr. Dan Reynolds, from John Carroll University, engaged his audience with dialogue of how teachers can challenge their students to read like a "historian" and go deeper into historical content to meet the rigor of the standards. 

Both the elementary and secondary literacy professional development activities are just the first of several ongoing opportunities for job embedded learning that will take place over the next 2-3 years.