This article aims to analyze the contributions and possibilities of a program to support teacher education in a public university in São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. It focuses on learning to teach literacy practices, through the actions of student teachers in a Pedagogy course in their actions envolving to teach reading and writing to first to fifth graders of elementary school during 2010 and 2011. The research was conducted in a qualitative approach and included analysis of interviews with student teachers, diary with field notes and portfolios´ texts. Data obtained bring contributions to investigate aspects of initial teacher education, specially related to literacy. The investigation also presents some of the challenges lived by the student teachers related to teaching reading and writing, considering that learning is frequently a result of overcoming challenges.