This study follows 12 preservice teachers who tutored adult students learning English in a free evening class while simultaneously taking a course titled Community Literacy. In particular, the authors examine how this context supported them in developing tools for teaching; and how those tools were shaped by and constructed these teachers’ identities. The authors used discourse analysis to examine three preservice teachers’ cases and their ideas about language acquisition, literacy teaching and learning, and teacher/student roles in a cross-cultural teaching setting. The authors conclude that the preservice teachers drew on the tools that come from mentor texts and their experiences, and also the tools that students brought, in unique ways.