Are you tired of rushing to get summer assignments done the week before school starts? Do you feel like summer assignments are just causing you more stress? How much information do you really remember from summer assignments when you go back to school? As students we all dread the strenuous summer assignments given at the end of the school year that help us prepare for our classes in the upcoming fall semester. These assignments often feel like a restriction from our fun summers that we have had planned for months. Students often put these assignments off until the very last minute, when school is getting ready to start again. There must be a way to make summer assignments for enjoyable for the students while still preparing them for their new courses. Summer assignments should be student designed because students can learn in a style that is best for them, they can space out the work load, and they can make it fun and enjoyable.

Summer assignments should be student designed because it allows the students to learn in a style that works best for them. Many teachers assign long packets and textbook readings, which provide all the information needed, but it might not be the most efficient way to get the information to stay in the students long-term memory. Students learn in all different ways, some students learn better by reading information, others learn better by writing down the information, as well as some students learn better by hearing or working hands on with the information. Students are more likely to remember the information when it is provided to them in a way that is interesting and intriguing to them. Letting summer assignments be student designed allows the students become more creative outside of the classroom for example there are students that learn best by reading textbooks but other may excel in learning by creating a poster, an info graphic, or even a hands on model.

Another reason why summer assignments should be student designed is because they can space out the work load. At the the start of summer most students are not thinking about doing their summer assignments. They just got out of school and they certainly do not want to focus on doing more work. If the summer assignments were student designed the student would know exactly how much work they have to get done for each class and they could approximate how long it would take them to complete it. This would encourage students to be more responsible for getting their work done and become more organized. The students would be able to plan out when they would need to the work and how the could evenly space it out so that they are still learning, but also enjoying their time off from school. Although there would still be students who would not do their work, or they would wait until the last minute to do their work, it teaches students to be more responsible and they would learn how to manage their time more efficiently.

The last reason why summer assignments should be student designed is because the students can make it more fun. We all know that school work is not the most enjoyable thing, but it is especially not enjoyable when you have to do it during the summer. There are some more enjoyable ways of learning than just reading from a text book and pulling out the important information. If the students were able to design their summer assignments, they could look forward to doing them, because they are exciting and it would be something that the students want to do, not forced to do. It is psychologically proven that people enjoy things more when it is not forced upon them to complete a task, so shouldn't that be the same for summer assignments? If students were able to design their summer assignments they would pay more attention when completing it and the information would have a greater chance of being encoded in their long-term memory, for when the school year starts again.

Student would be better off if summer assignments were student designed because they can choose how they want to learn, they can manage their time and work load, and they can enjoy it while doing it. I think both teachers and students can agree that summer assignments are dreadful to complete and grade, so why not make it more enjoyable on both sides. Would you rather have students complete a summer assignment in a fun, creative way, or make it feel like a task, where they are least likely to retain any of the information given to them? School is stressful enough as it is, so why have that stress carry into the summer.