Students strongly dislike summer assignments. It is a known fact, and completing them is the last thing on a child's agenda. One thing students do enjoy, is choosing everything themselves. Teacher's have a dramatic affect on a student's learning, most of the time being beneficial, but students tend to procrastinate on assignments that require a large amount of effort to work on. Summer projects should be student-designed because students are able to work with comfortable material, personalize the project to their liking which would make them more eager to complete it, and have the ability to produce less time-consuming projects that can make room for summer activities during the break.

There are beliefs that teachers should be monitoring and producing summer work for the students themselves. Supposedly, the perspectives of the teachers are valuable, and the projects produced would be putting a massive amount of pressure than of being produced by the students themselves. Although teachers do have high standards and expect the best amount of effort possible, students know what best suites their own knowledge and what levels they can withstand.

The Great Gatsby , a book that takes place in the 1920s, is about a rich man and the times of the stock market crash, among other things. Gatsby is a mysterious man who is hard to come by. Gatsby throws parties in his enormous mansion, and everyone human possible is invited. As time passes, he stops throwing these parties, and he is not heard from for a significant amount of time. The man could not withstand the massive amount of pressure of the parties; every individual expects the greatest out of Gatsby, but the stress that it all brings him results in isolation, especially with the Great Depression playing a large role. If students have the ability to produce their own projects and not have such high standards coming from a teachers standpoint, the students will have less stress and be able to find work that is compatible with their abilities.

To start off, projects given during the summer should be designed by the students because students are then able to work with material that they are comfortable with. A great example of this circumstance would be from the book

Divergent , written by Veronica Ross. In this novel, the main character, Tris, undergoes a significant change in her life; switching factions. The system does not choose for the individuals, every individual has the right to choose accordingly among a set of factions. The ability that one has to make the decision for themselves allows them to be comfortable with a future lifestyle that results in new friends, family, and the way of life. Students being able to personalize how they are going to perform the project, whether or not it will involve partners, and the form of work given will result in students being at a higher level of comfort than if a teacher were to produce the project top to bottom, not knowing if students will be satisfied or comfortable.

Continuing on, summer projects should be designed by the students themselves because personalizing the projects to their liking would make students more eager to complete them. Students have the tendency to not to things if told by another individual, but when the idea is introduced by oneself, the individual is more inclined to do it.

The Hunger Games is a novel that displays a similar effect; being based off of a numerous amount of decisions that could either end up in an individual's death, or survival, a certain scene in this book depicts the choosing of a weapon. The main character, Katniss, chooses a bow and arrow, being a weapon that the character has a great strength in and has a higher chance in succeeding with it. Having the ability to choose and having a personalized approach to the task makes one's task more likely to be completed with great excellence, especially if the individual personalizes the project to aid their strengths rather than their weaknesses. A teacher would not be able to identify a student's weaknesses, resulting in a weaker result than anticipated.

Lastly, projects given during the summer should be designed by the students because students would have the ability to produce less time-consuming projects that can make room for summer activities during the break. Summer break is called a break for a reason, and if teachers assign projects that are more time consuming than anticipated, the time that students are given would be wasted. For example, an individual that brings similarity to the topic is Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass is an inspirational figure in America's History. The man wants the abolition of slavery. By fighting for his beliefs and going through excruciating pain by his slaveholders, Douglass becomes more and more passionate about gaining the freedom that the man and every other slave deserves. With the ability to control one's own life and decisions, one will have more freedom and space to breathe. Giving students the opportunity to customize the projects to a more time conservative approach aids in both the learning experience because the work is still getting done accordingly, and there is still time reserved for a summer break that the students deserve and should be able to fully enjoy.

All in all, projects given during the summer should be designed by the students themselves because students then have the ability to work with material that best fits their comfort zone, customize a satisfactory project that persuades students to being more eager to complete it, and have the ability to make projects that consume less time, providing a larger window for students to use for summer activities. Students should be able to have freedom when it comes to their summer, and if given the opportunity to customize the work they receive during this time period, the results would be nowhere near disappointing. Making summer projects student-designed is a must.