What mostly frustrates me as a teacher of ELT is how to engage unmotivated students. As research has shown that "motivation is related to whether or not students have opportunities to be autonomous and to make important acedmic choices". Thus, being autonomous allows children to feel that they have control over their own learning.
One of our favorite classroom activities (me and my pupils), that is very motivating to a great degree is as the title suggests: Strip Story activity. First and foremost, what are strip stories? A strip story is a story which has been cut into smaller segments. The whole story is handed to the learners in a scrambled order by cutting it into strips of paper. This activity engages the students to the fullest. They manage in the end, to collaborate to arrange the story in a good order. Learners work in groups of three to four, to read all the strips and stick them on a seperate piece of paper. This activity, not only activates the students' schemata, but also creates a positive atmosphere for learning.
I do strongly recommend this type of activity to practice in our clasrooms insomuch that it becomes a weekly habit. However, this activity does not exclude the "basic bottom-up processing, the importance of lexicogrammatical focus, particularly in the early stages of learning". In fact, "second language readers require training in the skill of rapid recognition of large numbers of words and structures in order to accomplish the objective of reading extensively enough to build and improve the schemata they need for fuller enjoyment of the texts they read."(Niget Scott : http://iteslj.org/Articles/Stott-Schema.html)
After ordering the story, learners engage in a post-reading activity, which is usually understanding the story, commenting upon the events, discussing and reacting to the story.
All in all, this activity offers to both the learners and their teachers great moments of joy, engagement and learning.