Summer assignments can be very beneficial in ensuring that students are continuously learning, but the question at hand is, should students personalize their summer assignments or should a teacher-designed standardized copy be given to every student? Personally, I believe that students should be able to design their own summer assignments because only the student knows what they need to improve on, teachers may attempt to take advantage of this opportunity by assigning a tremendous amount of work and one standardized paper does not facilitate each individual students needs or learning styles.

Then again, some may believe that it is better for the teacher to design the assignment, because the teacher knows what students need to improve on, so the teachers would provide students with exactly what they need to practice. They might also believe that if a student was to design the assignment, they would purposely make it simple and deny themselves the opportunity to learn. They may also agree that teachers should make the assignments because the teacher is in a position of power in the classroom.

Although, the teacher is responsible for teaching the class, the student is responsible for knowing which areas they need improvement on. Every student is different, one student may find challenging, another may find it easy. For example, in my geometry class, most students find proportions simple, whereas I find them rather complex and challenging. If I were to design my own summer assignment for geometry, I would include a lot of proportions to ensure I get the needed practice. This is just one of the example of how students know where they need improvement and how a student can help promote their own success.

Teachers are meant to assist students in excelling at the necessary curriculum in order to pass the course, yet some times they overbear students with work. Many teachers would take advantage of the summer assignment and give students too much work. Summer vacation is meant to be a break from school, if students have loads of homework to do, they will not be able to enjoy their time off. Students would then have to make the choice between losing quality time outside of school doing schoolwork or disregard the assignment completely and enjoy themselves, most students would end up picking the latter.

Thirdly, no two people are the same, and no two people learn the same. Some students learn better visually, so their summer assignments should include many videos, some students learn better kinetically, so their summer assignments should include hands on activities, and others learn better by hearing, so their summer assignments should include audio material such as pod casts.

In summary, I believe that students should be able to design their own summer assignments because, they are the only ones capable of knowing what they personally need to improve on, teachers may try to take advantage of the summer assignment and assign too much work, and everyone learns differently so students should be able to tailor the summer assignment to fit their learning styles.