Gainer talks about the importance of connecting students' background knowledge, experiences, and interests to curricular goals. He highlights the voice of DeAndre, an eighth-grade boy in special education classes, whose participation in an after-school club led to the creation of a video. According to Gainer, "[W]hen given the opportunity to engage with popular culture as a text, DeAndre was a highly organized, self-confident, and caring leader who coached, scaffolded, and taught others using a variety of high-level literacy competencies." DeAndre's experiences reflect the power of popular culture in helping us build bridges between students' in-school and out-of-school literacies.