Research shows that pre-service teachers face traditional approaches to teaching literature in their student teaching placements that contrast with the progressive strategies covered in their graduate education programs. This article describes 4 teacher candidates' (TCs') contrasting assumptions about the teaching of literature in secondary schools and the consequences of those assumptions as they relate to deficit thinking. Using a convenient sampling of 4 participants, I analyzed multiple sources of data (transcribed interviews, lesson plans, and videos of teaching) via a constant comparative approach, which included quantifying data as in a classical content analysis approach. Although I discovered discrepancies that align with existing research, the data also revealed that these discrepancies produced a level of deficit thinking that blinded the TCs to the various interests and abilities of the students they taught. I conclude that education program coordinators should explore how TCs' assumptions about teaching might result in deficit thinking and develop ways to support a reflection process that addresses these assumptions better to prepare TCs for meeting the needs of students.