This article describes a recent practitioner-research study of secondary preservice teachers' development of literacy instruction in a content area literacy course at a large university in the Southwest United States. The study utilized a sociocultural approach that focused on discipline-specific literacy practices that define what it means to be literate within a content area. After sharing perceptions of their ability to use literacy practices to design effective literacy instruction in an open-ended survey, participants created a series of lesson plans by focusing on literacy practices they identified as vital to their disciplines in a text analysis assignment. Finally, participants completed a second survey following the unit and took part in semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on survey responses, essays, lesson plans, and transcribed texts. Findings conclude that a focus on disciplinary literacy practices invites social and cultural connections between the ways in which people make meaning and the contexts surrounding those operations, and that those practices inspire new kinds of instructional strategies designed to enhance literacy achievement.