This article examines the case studies of 2 middle grades professional learning communities that focused on teaching and learning with new literacies strategies. The new literacies theoretical lens that frames this study recognizes literacy as multimodal (e.g., print, image, sound) and tied to one's sociocultural identities and subjectivities. Data included 50 hr of field notes and transcripts from observation in the professional learning communities meetings and in classroom teaching contexts. We also conducted exit interviews. Matrix and discourse analyses of participants' enacted identities and subjectivities revealed differential affinity, discourse, and institutional identities and instruction across the 2 case studies: one of mandated participation and the other of voluntary participation. Participants situated their views of literacy in relation to the underperforming schools in which they taught, in which basic, print-based assessments trumped other forms of literacy and learning.