This critical ethnographic study explores how two teacher candidates in English education used specific and varied literacy practices to enact their social justice priorities at a troubled high school in a high-need district. Data include interviews before and after the student teaching experience; observations of teaching, blogs, journals, and emails; and coursework required of candidates. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze the data. The New Literacy Studies and teaching for social justice frameworks were foundational to this research. In addition, the theory of testimonial reading, as outlined by Felman (1992) and Boler (1999), was used to demonstrate how the two candidates worked within and against the system to resist deficit models of their students and ultimately bear witness to their students' experiences.