The student-designed projects will create an educational and more engaging summer program than teacher-designed projects. Summer projects that are student designed will allow the students to create an engaging project that they will want and be able to complete over the summer break. By allowing students to design the summer project, students will want to complete the lessons they have created and will be able to follow the lessons at their own pace, with teacher assistance if they get stuck or have trouble completing the project.

With the ability to create a structured summer project students will be engaged in the project and it will allow them to express their own creativity while designing the project. While creating the projects the students should be given a rough outline of the themes and main points that should be covered in the project, this will allow the students to complete a projects that will follow along with the lessons that teachers will present during the school year. Book projects that are student-designed and assigned over break would be interesting and engaging for students who may or may not find the actual book interesting, this would encourage the students to complete the project before the school year starts and be less stressful for the students. This process would lessen student stress about summer school work and would prepare the students for their classes in the new school year.

The projects that the students create would also allow the students to follow along at their own pace throughout the summer without having to worry about family vacations or other activities because they would already understand the project and know what is required and how to complete it. This would also encourage the students to complete the project because it would be something they created themselves. The student projects that are created could have check-ins every few weeks to remind students of the project and ensure that they are gradually completing the assignment. This would allow the teachers some control over the programs without undermining the student-designed aspect of the project.

A drawback to the student-designed aspect of these summer projects would be the concern about the educational value of the projects that are student design. The students could create a project that does not incorporate analysis or thinking skills that are necessary for their course during the school year. These concerns would be solved with teacher guidelines for the the project with certain requirements that would use the analysis and thinking skills, without taking away from the aspect of the student creation. This would allow the students to create an educational program that is interesting to students and meets all the required thinking and analysis skills.

By allowing students to create their own projects the school system is continuing the students education over the summer break while still enabling students the freedom to do the school work at their own pace and have engaging projects for the students to complete. This program will increase the student learning throughout the summer and prepare them for the upcoming classes in the next school year.