While teacher candidates take courses that prepare them to deliver content in secondary content area classrooms, they often lack the knowledge necessary to help their future students learn discipline-specific information through the use of literacy strategies. In many cases, content area teacher candidates do not view themselves as literacy educators, believing instead that English teachers or elementary level educators are responsible for developing the reading and writing skills of students. However, development as teachers of literacy is possible. Through a content area literacy course taken as part of a teacher preparation program, secondary content area teacher candidates reported changes in their perceptions of and willingness to use literacy strategies to improve the learning outcomes of their students. Through pre-course and post-course surveys, teacher candidates reported an expanded understanding of the importance of literacy in the development of content knowledge.