Circulation has seemingly become a part of students' writing practices. This is not to suggest that students understand the rhetorical theories of circulation. Instead, this point demonstrates that students likely have experiences with circulation that are influencing their writing literacies. Yet most of the current circulation pedagogies focus less on engaging students' prior experiences with and literacies for circulation and instead on either introducing students to circulation or instructing them on what it is (Ridolfo and DeVoss; Trimbur; Warren-Riley and Verzosa Hurley). Instead, circulation likely needs to be approached as something that is already influencing students' perceptions of and approaches to writing, and something that is already a part of most students' writing literacies. Such a shift generates several questions, such as what do students already practice and/or believe about circulation? How are those practices and/or beliefs shaping students' writing literacies? How can composition pedagogies shift so that they can better engage students' circulation-related writing literacies? To answer these questions, this essay first draws together multiple theories of circulation to articulate a multifaceted definition of the rhetorical concept. This definition articulates how circulation operates in a range of speeds and effects. Such a definition is critical to this essay, and for teaching circulation in composition courses, for it articulates how virality is one of many forms of circulation. Building upon this definition, the essay reviews the existing pedagogies for teaching circulation. The essay demonstrates the limitations of the existing pedagogies in light of the complex definition of circulation as well as students' prior experiences with and knowledge of circulation. Second, this essay shares the results from an IRB-approved empirical case study of first-year composition (FYC) students. In the case study, students enacted and articulated their prior experiences with and approaches to circulation. The case study reveals that circulation should be treated as a crucial and pre-existing element of students' writing literacies because various aspects of circulation are already influencing how many students write, read, and understand writing.