We seek to understand how teachers that do not share a heritage language with their students can leverage these languages in literacy instruction. This study reports on 5 teachers' implementation of a literacy activity that uses strategic collaborative translation to facilitate middle school English language learners' (ELLs) understandings about texts, about reading comprehension strategies, and about language. Using a sociocultural perspective, we found that teachers drew on diverse pedagogical tools by participating in the activity as learners, collaborators, or experts. When teachers participated as learners, they were able to increase their understandings about students' language and cultural background. When teachers participated as collaborators, they drew students' attention to the importance of negotiating and constructing meaning in texts. When teachers participated as experts, they scaffolded student participation by sharing strategies for comprehending challenging vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. From this analysis, we then highlight how this activity can support ELLs' literacy achievement under the Common Core State Standards.