This article explores the complexity of learning the literacy practices and conventions in the discipline of English language arts. Literacies are explored in the areas of writing/composition, reading/literature, and language/grammar, with attention to the situated nature of proper expression and understanding with respect to each. The author illustrates how different communities of practice produce expectations that require an understanding of not only print conventions but also the social practices that they follow from. The author urges teachers to prepare students for literacy development so they engage the world outside the classroom through language and related modes of communication in ways that enable them to understand others and to express their own views with fidelity to their intentions and clarity to their listeners and readers.