A study explored 18 Georgia third graders' perceptions of literacy teaching and learning during the second year of their teacher's transition from a traditional, textbook-based approach to a whole language, literature-based approach. Data gathering included 8 months of observation and of in-depth interviews with students. Analysis revealed that students had a well-defined set of determinants for what was "fun" and what was "work" in literacy learning. Students' determinants for fun (personal preference, competence, low level of difficulty, familiarity, time, choice, ownership, caring audience, collaboration, ample support, high engagement, variety, and learning) aligned closely with classroom practices recommended by many whole language advocates. Despite the value that students and their teacher placed on fun, the students did not count fun as a necessary condition of academic experience. This inability to trust their own judgments about teaching and learning seemed to indicate deeply entrenched beliefs about what school should be like--beliefs that were unalterable in one academic year. (Contains 36 references and one table of data.) (Author/RS)