Most schools require some kind of work for students to do over the course of the summer outside of school. Usually, these assignments are to keep topics fresh in the minds of the students so that they can retain the information for the coming school year. These assignments do refresh the student on the topics that they have learned; however, the students rarely apply themselves to these assignments. Students do not see a point to these assignments because they don't think of the long term benefits of these assignments as the cause for their success in school. I think that these summer assignments should be designed by teachers so that they cover the necessary topics, but take into account the students requests as well. These summer assignments designed by teachers are critical because it helps the student succeed, saves time, and promotes learning.

If students were allowed to be completely in control of their summer work, they would chose one of three things: not to do it, do only the topics they are comfortable with, or chose something they are actually interested in. Most students will opt for not doing these assignments and having the summer for themselves. However, when the students arrive back at school, not having done any work to prepare for the school year, the teachers will have to take time in class to reteach everything that was learned in the previous year. These summer assignments are difficult, but they without-a-doubt help a student succeed. Personally, when I was given an optional summer assignments, I did not complete it and I struggled immensely with the curriculum until I took the time to actually review the material. I have no doubt that if I had done that summer assignment I would have had a much better start to the year. With this option available to students to "self-design," the students will not properly prepare themselves as much as teachers will, and therefore will not succeed as much.

When summer assignments are given, it allows for students to refresh themselves on the topics that they had learned previously, and perhaps new topics that they will be covering in the coming year. This allows for the teachers to briefly cover what was learned previously and then move on to new topics. If teachers didn't design the summer assignment, then these topics would have to be reviewed in class before starting any new topics. This makes the first few weeks of the school year even more chaotic because every teacher will have to speed through each of the topics necessary for the curriculum in order to make up that time.

Also, when students learn some of the topics before coming to school, it helps the teacher get though the topics quicker by not having to explain as much. When the students do not have the summer assignments designed by the teacher, they do not learn the new topics, and therefore have to spend more time on them in class. For example, most classes have summer assignments so that they can avoid having to review a bunch of material before learning the new curriculum. Given these points, teacher-designed summer assignments are critical to save time for the new information to be covered during the year.

Finally, these summer assignments promote independent learning for students. They teach students how to find information and time management, which are necessary skills for college and future careers. Research based summer assignments are valuable to learning because they are flexible in the structuring but also cover the topics necessary. If a teacher told students to write a short essay to summarize a few topics that they have learned or are interested in learning about, the students will apply themselves more than having to write out ten pages of notes on a book. This type of summer assignment requires actual thinking and creativity from a student. When a student is given fifty math problems they have done before, they learn nothing, but when given twenty and a small creativity based project, they will actually fully apply themselves to the work. This will also cause students to not resent the work that they are doing and hopefully cause for a better school year to come.

For these reasons I agree that there should be teacher-designed summer assignments, but I also believe that they should be more engaging and interesting for students so that they apply themselves and retain the information. The summer assignments that the teachers assign now are not engaging in the least and cause the students to dread having to come back to school. I think that the core topics that need to be reviewed should be given by the teacher, but that the teacher should allow for the students to work creatively on part of the assignment, this may cause for less dread by the students. With these types of assignments, both the teachers and students can be successful during the coming school year.