This paper describes how the literacy methods course at Washington State University was modified in light of critical literacy and service learning perspectives. The goal has always been to teach preservice teachers literacy development strategies within units of instruction of their own design, units they construct that integrate content and literacy strategies as well as issues and practical ideas related to justice, civic responsibility, caring, personal growth, and service learning. In the first phase, from 1989 to 1992, the researchers worked using action research and teachers-as-researchers methods to develop and validate the broader instructional context of the course to use a community of learners approach and the use of student portfolios. The second phase involved the integration of service learning from 1992 through 1995. The program focused on service learning as a subcomponent of content learning and the functional use of content literacy skills. Students worked to weave service learning into the content literacy lesson plans they write in the course, with service learning subordinate to their learning in the course. It appeared that integrating service learning into brief lesson plans was not successful; students were then asked to include service learning in more elaborated units of instruction that were usually longer than 1 week. The third phase of course development involved integrating service learning and placing work on the World Wide Web, a phase that began around 1996 and was ongoing at the time of the paper. Several examples are given of the ways in which students developed Web pages for their lessons. The paper lists 19 sources for additional information. (Contains 6 figures and 34 references.) (SLD)