It's the last day of school, and students are sweating bullets eager for the clock to kick off their summer vacation when the hour-hand strikes two. Suddenly, collective groans echo throughout the entire school when an english teacher hands out a summer reading project. Many schools require students to complete some kind of assignment during their summer break because the school boards believe that it will ensure continued learning. Summer assignments usually ask that students read a book over the summer and fill out some type of summary or chart. Many students have great disdain for summer projects because they can act as a looming annoyance waiting to be accomplished. Summer projects should be student-designed because it gives students the ability to work at their own pace, promotes interest, and prevents students from copying eachother

Allowing students to design their own summer project allows them to work at their own pace. Schools usually don't account for what home or family students go back to during the summer. A student might go back to a family with elderly or children they have to take care of thus filling up their schedule. Schools also don't account for students who have jobs during the summer. If a teacher assigns a project that consists of several pages of charts, summaries, or questions to fill out, it can slam a ton of stress on students going home to a busy schedule. Giving students the ability to design their own projects benefits students who will be busy over summer break because they can reserve whatever time they can scrap up for making a project that makes their life easier. Although not encouraged, this freedom also gives students who procrastinate the ability to make their sleepless night completing said project the day before school starts less stressful. Since every student is different, every student benefits with the power to work at their own pace.

Giving students the freedom to design their own summer project also promotes interest in the assignment. For typical summer projects like reading a book, students are usually given a reading list of books and they're required to read one of the books on the list. The lists arguably always consist of books that students find boring or repetitive when they go over topics they've already studied in the past. Students won't be interested in works they find boring or repetitive so when they're making a project off of it, words, reasoning, and justification will seem empty and made up on the spot. If students are allowed to pick any book they'd like to read over the summer and make an assignment off of it, their interest and passion might shine through in their interpretation of the material. Some might say that assignments students make up could be counterproductive since they might not have anything to do with themes or topics that will be learned in the coming school year. On the other hand, teachers can simply just note as a minor requirement that students must make one quick connection from their project to any theme that will be studied in the school year.

Letting students design their own summer projects also prevents them from copying one another. One tactic that students will typically use with summer projects like reading a book of their choice and filling out the same chart is to read the same book as a friend and then copy each other answers when they have to turn the project in. If students design their own project, they'll have to show some individuality and creativity on the due date. Teachers will have an easier time telling when students copy each other because if done right, no student should have created the same project. If two students are caught clearly copying off each other on a project meant for individuality, they can be punished accordingly. Everyone will turn something different in at least some way when they aren't spoon fed a big packet and instead get to create their own packet.

Overall, both students and teachers benefit when students are the ones who make the summer project because students work at their own pace, create something they might be interested in, and display their individuality in learning more accurately. Students who procrastinate, have jobs, or take care of family over the summer will heave a sigh of relief. Students will be grateful they'll have a more creative, individual project to complete when they're bored during the summer and not a big, scary one that's due the day they get back to school. Less groans will echo throughout schools when students hear that they have more freedom in an assignment given for what's supposed to be a break.