Students are stuck doing summer assignments during their vacation. Various teachers give students assignments to do on their break and these kids have no time to enjoy it. If summer assignments are student-designed rather than teacher-designed, students are able to enjoy their summer vacations and be able to show what they know and what creativity they hold. Although some may believe otherwise, creativity, diversity of projects, and comprehensibility of the concept proves that summer projects should be student-designed.

One reason why summer projects should be student-designed is the creativity of the project. Instead of one strict guideline for the projects, students can get creative and go above and beyond and be able to put more effort into them. A science teacher gave all of his students a project on the idea of photosynthesis. The kids had to color in a picture of a cell that he provided and label the parts of the cell. When the school year began, the teacher failed all of his kids as they showed "no creativity". If his students were able to design their own projects, then creativity would have been present. On another case, my friend and I were given a summer assignment where we had to respond to a prompt that the teacher had given. The prompt was boring and every student wrote similar essays and lacked major creativity according to the head of the English department. We were barely given enough time to write our essays as the prompt had come out late. If the groups were able to chose their own prompts, the kids would be able to put more effort to make a creative, persuasive essay and be given ample time to write them.

Another reason as to why summer project should be student-designed is behind the comprehensibility of the concept. Students will be able to show what they know and understand instead of letting the teacher decide what they should know or understand. Teachers like to know what their upcoming students understand about the subject via their projects. It was difficult for my teacher to grasp what the students knew as he had put out one parallel structure and everyone followed one same principle. If the students were able to design their own projects, they would be able to show more of what they know. Another example is where my friends math teacher had let them design their own projects and make up problems and solve them. Each student had turned in something unique and were able to show the teacher what they knew while having enough time to finish as they were able to work around their vacations.

One may say that if these projects are teacher-designed, there will be one organized structure. As this may seem true, teachers aren't able to get proper data on what the student knows and how creative a student can get. Teachers need to know what their students are capable of doing and if they can't gather the proper data, then they won't know. One may even say that if the projects are teacher-designed it would be easier for the teacher to grade. If that's true, then if projects are student-designed it would be easier for the students to do them. The quality would be better and students would be able to create a project around the free time they have as they have pre-planned vacations and events.

Thus, summer projects should be student-designed to show the creativity of the student, diversity of the projects, and comprehensibility of the concept the students can grasp. Families have planned vacations for the summer over a year in advance, and teachers shouldn't throw the obstacle of following a strict guideline for a summer project and ruin their vacation. If the student is able to design their project, then they can get creative, show their knowledge, and have the time to make a project while enjoying their vacation.