Have you ever done a summer assignment? Would you rather have it done your way or the teachers way? Summer projects should be teacher-designed because the project will be more focused on what will be learned in class, the project will be more structured to what they're looking for, and the project will be useful to the student.

However, some people may argue that if the project is student-designed, then the student would be more engaged. For example, in ninth grade, the English department demanded an essay written during the summer. When the teacher started collecting papers, I was one of two students who turned in a paper. Almost all the students didn't do the summer assignment. So if the summer assignments were student-designed, then more students could perhaps be more involved. Nevertheless, there are other viewpoints to consider.

To begin with, the project will be more focused on what will be learned in class. For example, in seventh grade, my English teacher required that you write a paper about what you did during the summer. I didn't know what kind of writing she was expecting, but with this essay she was able to tell what we needed to work on. Summer projects should be teacher-designed because teachers will focus on what most students need to learn. This is only one reason why summer projects should be teacher-designed.

In addition, the project will be more structured to what they're looking for. For instance, just like on the writing SOL, there are directions; they are looking for something specific. They are looking for a thesis, transition words, and more to see what you've learned. When you include all those elements that the grader is looking for, you will pass. Summer projects should be teacher designed because you can do all the things that they expect out of the project and you will get a good grade. There are more reasons as to why a summer project should be teacher-designed.

Finally, the project will be useful to the student. Consider as an example, I read about "the curve of forgetting." In short, over time, you forget things at an exponentially increasing rate if you don't review the materials you learned one day. The purpose of summer projects are to make sure students keep learning over their long break, so that they don't experience this "curve" as much and keep it almost as fresh as when they did learn it on the first day. The project will be useful to the student because they will use this learning in the classroom when they return to school. The claims and evidence stated above all lead to the same conclusion.

In conclusion, teacher-designed summer projects are better than student-designed summer projects because it's more tailored to the class, it's better for the grader and the student, and the information learned will be used in the class and future classes in the same subject. For summer projects to be teacher-designed matters because we need useful learning. I want you to think about if there was a time when you had to do a summer assignment where it was up to you to decide everything. How did it go?