Schools assign summer projects or assignments to ensure that the student continues to learn and develop the necessary skills to not just grow, but thrive in the classes they're taking the next school year. I believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to create and structure the assignments to cover all of the basic skills and knowledge that the student needs to have mastered to start the class with their best foot forward. The teacher knows what the student needs to be able to learn in their class and has a much better idea of how to design a project or make sure material is absorbed by the student.

Since the teacher is familiar with the content of their class it is rather easy for them to design a project or assignment for a student to work on that pertains to their class. However, a student may have a difficult time trying to teach them self all of the material that they should know to start the year, and it can even be troublesome to know what you actually need to cover without the teacher's guidance. For example; if a student were to design a project for a biology class that they would take the next year in school, it would be completely possible for them to miss the mark on the information the teacher was hoping that they'd cover. It makes much more sense for the teacher to create the project them self; although, giving the student a guideline on something like a research project in which they would learn all of the topics the teacher wishes them to cover during the summer is a great idea. In a sense, having the student designing their own project while following a rubric or a set list of required topics would be the most efficient way of doing summer assignments.

The purpose of a summer assignment is to ensure that the student retains the information and is going into the class with a background knowledge that serves as a good foundation for the information that they'll learn during the course. The best way for this to be done is having the teacher design the assignment because of their experience with teaching and their retrospect on how other students did after changes made to previous summer assignments. The student is likely to put in minimal effort into the assignment if they have to create it completely on their own because of how stressful and boring it can seem during the summer. When the teacher makes the assignment most of the students will complete the assignment on a schedule, and by doing this they actually create a stronger foundation of that knowledge because of the length of the time period that they're thinking about the topic. However, a student created assignment will be much shorter and not cover all of the material very well because they aren't sure what should be included. The best solution is allowing the student to learn and teach them self independently at least partially, and giving guidance and structure for another part of the assignment.

Teachers will argue that a teacher designed assignment is the better option because of their expertise, but students will argue that because they don't know the material they should design the assignment themselves. The student's argument would include points like: an argument about independence, a persuasion that teaching themselves is beneficial to their learning, and it can be less stressful when designing it themselves because they can control the length, difficulty, and information covered. Although these are valid points, I still would believe that because without teacher guidance the student wouldn't know what material to cover the student's argument is flawed. The independence is earned by studying, they get the benefit of learning at their pace when studying before and during the course, and some stress is relieved when the teacher lays out a plan for the student to complete.

The debate on whether the teacher or the student should design the summer assignment for their class is an easy argument to take a side on. The teacher is clearly the better choice because of their expertise in teaching and their ability to ensure that the student retains the information is invaluable to the efficiency of the assignment. Giving students the time to teach themselves some of the information is a good idea, but most of the instruction should be led by the teacher so that they cover everything they need to and don't get off track. Although the student's argument does make a point about the level of stress involved, but it doesn't carry as much weight as the benefit of covering everything the techer wants the student to and creating that strong foundation of knowledge for the class.