Motivating students towards language learning includes embedding meaningful themes, communicative tasks, and authentic assessments. When voice and choice are held as essential qualities of the task, students invest in the resources to make meaning and express their own thoughts, thus moving us away from traditional assessments that emphasize surface-level understanding and towards critical thinking and proficiency. Applying the unit's learning to an interpersonal or presentational assessment that values not only the structures and vocabulary but also the students' synthesis makes their language learning personal.