This discussion examines an academic intervention designed to enhance the motivation and classroom engagement of English Language Learners (ELLs) during literacy-based activities. Stemming from a sociocultural perspective of literacy (Au, 1993; Perez, 2004) within a funds of knowledge framework (González, Moll, & Amanti , 2005), our approach emphasizes personalized learning (Redding, 2013) by having the students design, develop, and implement classroom lessons based on their own interests. As part of the process, the participating students made clear connections between home and classroom practices, resulting in higher productivity during literacy and oral activities. By tapping into what we call scholastic funds of knowledge, the students also showed higher levels of meta-cognitive awareness in designing activities for their peers and revealed a broader perspective of what it takes to develop academic lessons. Not only do the results demonstrate an increase in the participants' investment in classroom activities (Norton, 1995), their student-directed lessons had a positive effect on the engagement of other students within the class as well.