I am very on board with the idea that student projects enhance learning throughout the summer , but should the student projects be chosen but the students or by teachers ?

After extensive thought I believe they should be chosen by the students , but should have a firm rubrick and expectations on how to get full credit for completion of the project.

The thought behind student projects is to help the children continue learning even throughout the summer, so you want to make the project something cool that will make all kids even with different intrest, intrested enough that they will want to complete the project. I feel like if the teachers pick what the project should be about there will still be students who are not intrested enough to even bother completing it and they will see a sharp decline in the amount of students willing to complete a student project.

Now that being said i feel that there is a fine line between school appropriate projects and projects that are not. Students should not only be provided with a sheet that gives prompt ideas and lists what does meet project guidelines as well as a list of things that will result in a loss of points on the project. There are many things a student can come up with such as a photography journal with a paragraph beside each photograph explaining the significance of the Photo , or someone who loves astronomy completing a model solar system with why each planet is suitable or not suitable for life. Give them the option the express themselves through these projects not just throw something together because they want a grade.

I can also see the other side where people say that it should be teacher chosen so that they can provide detailed expectations of how the project should be completed , but you have to see that in a class of twenty or thirty students not all students are intrested in the same things. It will make the student who is not intrested feel left out when they see other people so excited to complete a project that they are gonna wait until the last night of summer and throw something together because it is not something they like. Consider all of the different personality types ? You cant have a one size fits all project because there will always be someone who it does not actually fit .

Thank you so much for allowing me to express my opinion in this paper. I am very aware that not everyone will have the same one as me but i do hope my argument made sense .