Most schools require students to complete a variety of projects during their summer break like reading books or completing a math packet. These projects help students continue their learning away from school, except the only difference is that they have all of summer to do it compared to having a due date within a week. Some projects prepare students for the upcoming school year while others act like reminders so that students won't forget what they learned in the past year. Though some believe that summer projects should be student-designed, others will argue that summer projects should be teacher-designed in order to get the best learning experience while away from school.

Summer projects should be designed by teachers because it will help students prepare for the upcoming school year. Some students may panic because they won't understand the new material or that they will fall behind in the class because they don't remember how solve a simple question, but if teachers design a project based on their class, it gives students an idea of what to expect. For example, a student will be taking Algebra 2 in the upcoming school year, but doesn't know anything about the class. A simple teacher-designed project that could help a student is a packet with math problems from every unit with examples that explains how to do it, so when students go back to school, they aren't completely blindsided by the new concept. Most schools, mainly high school and middle school, have reading assignments that students must complete before the school year. Reading projects could range from reading a certain book and writing an essay about it to completing a reading bingo where students have to complete a series of reading tasks of their choosing. Yes, the word project seem bland and a complete waste of time while students are on their break, but it doesn't have to be boring as long as it serves the purpose of helping students learn.

I can personally say that teacher-designed summer projects help prepare students for the upcoming school year. Once in middle school, there was a reading project assigned during the summer where students had to pick a book of their choosing that they can connect to and make notes on the side. I decided to choose a book about sports because as an athlete, I could relate to bits of the story. There were a few new things from the book that I learned about, so I wrote little notes on the pages and highlighted the text. After completing the project and returning to school, the teacher then told the class that the purpose of the project was to prepare for annotations, a concept new to students, and to help understand how to compare books that would be read throughout the school year.

Over the summer, students would forget the material they learned from the past school year, which makes it hard for them to pick up once back at school. Students also learn at different rates meaning that some are more advanced than others. These are another few reasons as to why summer projects should be teacher-designed. Teachers can design a project that helps them see where students are in their learning process and what they remember from past classes. For example, if a student takes a language, like Spanish, teachers can design a project where students must write a story in Spanish based on a given prompt. The project could include requirements that were taught from previous classes with some new concepts added in to see if an individual knows new concepts that will be taught in their future class. This will help teachers understand how they can help a student and where they stand in their learning process.

Although these are valid reasons as to why summer projects should be teacher-designed, others will disagree and believe that summer projects should be student-designed. The purpose of summer is so that students can take a break from all the stress that they have experienced during the school year, so a great way to learn and be stress free while doing so is a student-designed project. Students could be assigned a project for a class, but it could be of their choosing. For example, students could be assigned a project with no requirements where they have to make a presentation on anything that interests them, as long as there was a learning process. This will spark different ideas because all students have different backgrounds and their own interests like sports, cooking, or a job that they have. Though these topics are far from being similar, they all have a learning process. Since the project would be based on an individual's choice, it would be less stressful because it is something they are familiar with and know how to work around.

Yes, these are two very different sides with different opinions, but they both have a learning experience. Students still get the continuous learning process throughout their break while teachers can see where a student's learning capability is. Teacher-designed projects are stricter meaning that students would probably benefit from it more, while student-designed projects are less stressful based on a students choice. Even though most individuals would disagree saying that summer projects should be student-designed, teacher-designed projects are still the best option to get the best experience for learning new things and reviewing old material.