This article moves beyond the common core and leveled literacy instruction to demonstrate how diverse learners in one fourth grade classroom, challenged teacher authority in an effort to position themselves as capable readers. In doing so, they implored the teachers to consider the social context of reading as an essential component to the ways in which we offer readers opportunities to grow. Readers' identities, were both limited by and grew out of the opportunities pertaining to leveled reading that were made available within the classroom. The vignettes examined contain implications for how a student's sense of agency and reader identity impacts who they are as readers and how they are viewed within the culture of the classroom.