During the summer many students tend to loose the skills and information they gather through the previous school year. Some higher level courses to prevent this problem, implement summer reading activities or online module/guided programs to keep their students on top of the material or to refresh them... but with all schools come different teaching styles. Some teachers strive for their students to be more independent and do the work on their own, but other teachers like to have a rigorous and set rubric or outline of what projects and essays should look like. Summer projects should be teacher-designed because it eliminates the loopholes that can be found by the students, the teacher can incorporate the summer project into a future theme or unit in the school year, and if students designed a project for themselves they wouldn't challenge themselves and put minimal effort in.

Students when they are given freedom or multiple options tend to tweak and stretch the guidelines to make it easier or to even make excuses on why they didn't do a certain part or do it a certain way. If teachers have full control over the design of this summer based assignment they can insure the students will do what they say exactly and theres no if's, and's, or but's about it. Also when the teacher has full control over the summer assignments design it is easier for them to fi the project's theme into the curriculum or unit they desire during the school year. With my AP English teacher this year, 11th grade, I had summer reading to do and an assignment she attached with it. This book ended up tying into other books we discussed in class and fit into the curriculum very well. This shows how it benefits the teachers a lot with workload, and even students, because the assignment actually means something and isn't just a bogus last minute project they could make up and waste their time.

The last example of why a teacher-designed project is beneficial to the students is that it doesn't sell the kids short of their academic potential by just taking the easy way out with an easy project. Students, or anyone, only grow and develop when they're exposed to challenges and obstacles it builds their mental capacity and their problem solving skills. If a teacher choices to do a particularly hard project or assignment this pushes the students out of their comfort zone allowing them to make these new connections in their brain and gain new knowledge and working skills. But if a kid is allowed to design their own project for the summer, most kids aren't going to do an extravagant or hard project, but instead take a more simplistic and easier way because the students want to enjoy their summer and not waste it on a school project. This would be a detriment to the students academics and the skills they could've acquired if they were to apply themselves.

The opposing idea of a student-designed project can be argued to be beneficial to the students for maybe 2 ways, it allows the student to be more creative and if they can design something they like... they will be more motivated to complete the task. Though these are both good ideas. They don't hold as many pros as the teacher-designed project does. Teachers often add a lot of creativity to their projects and even have a rubric section for maybe 5-10 points just for creativity and colorfulness itself. Teachers also often allow kids to atleast pick the topic of the project or what they want to research to encourage them to do something they like, but still hold the same guidelines for the attatched project.

Though sometimes these projects the teachers provide seem tedious, pointless, and "too much" the teachers are usually doing it for the students own good and want to see them grow as a student. These teacher-designed assignments allow them to help students through the school year, guide them through lessons, and develop them as a student.