Have you ever had a poorly designed project? To try and minimize this occurrence, some schools have started to question whether summer projects should be student-designed or teacher-designed. While some may argue that student-designed projects are better because they fit the individual learning style of each student, this factor becomes insignificant when the students don't learn the material they are expected to. With them being teacher-designed, the projects would be more organized, there would be more time left for the students to focus on extracurricular activities and homework, and all course content would be covered. This is ultimately why these summer projects should be teacher-designed.

The first reason why summer projects should be teacher-designed is because teachers would be more responsible with designing the project and ensure its organization. Teachers would have a set of requirements regarding amount of information and most would have a rubric to base the project off of. If students were to design these projects, many, if not all, would minimize the work they'd have to do because that's just the nature of high school students. One last important reason as to why the summer projects would be better designed by teachers for their responsibility and organization is that they won't be biased as to how difficult to make the projects. Since the teachers aren't doing these projects themselves like the students are, they will not purposefully skip over content to make it easier for themselves. Because of teachers' position in regard to summer projects, they will be responsible with designing it.

Another main point as to why students should not be designing the summer projects is because they have less time for it. Many students participate in extracurricular activities may it be sports, band, theater, or clubs. Each activity requires commitment and time, and with many students spending 2-4 hours after school doing these things, it already leaves them little time for homework, much less designing a whole project. Teachers, on the other hand, have mandatory planning periods built in throughout their day for the sole purpose of outlining lessons, grading papers, or designing projects. Because of students' restricted time throughout the day, they would not design the project as well as if the teacher did.

The last reason why teachers are better fit for designing the summer projects rather than students is because teachers will make sure it covers the curriculum in depth. Teachers would have access to county or state requirements for that certain course and would be able to design the projects so that they cover all the information needed. Furthermore, teachers would test students' true knowledge and challenge them rather than just skim over surface facts. Finally, what makes teachers even more qualified for designing the projects is that they have had years of experience (in most cases). To make sure that students continue learning new material over summer break, teachers must be the ones designing the projects because they have taught the material year after year and have a good grasp on concepts. It wouldn't make sense for students to design projects based off material that they have not yet learned because it's very possible that they might skip over crucial information. Having these summer projects be teacher-designed would ensure the coverage of all the course content.

In conclusion, teacher-designed summer projects should be the way to go because it would benefit both the teacher and the student. First, it would ensure the organization and content of the project because teachers are more responsible. Second, it would life a weight off the students because they are already pressed for time throughout the day and don't have time to design a project. Lastly, this benefits both parties because the students learn or retain all the material they need to and the teachers can ensure this by making the project themselves.