This paper develops the argument that new literacies constitute an indispensable foundation for developing school discourse among 1.5 and newcomer urban adolescents. A mother and literacy educator presents insights learned from indirectly participating in co-constructing Standard English discourse with her newcomer adolescent son through video games, teen chat sites, and hip-hop discourse. An urban discourse perspective and the new literacies framework are evoked to support the need to reconcile old and new literacies in providing literacy instruction to today's generation of urban youths.