When kids get off school during the summer, it's important for them to continue learning so they are able to go back prepared. By giving these children summer assignments, they are able to build their knowledge from when school ends to when it starts back up again. Although these assignments are helpful, there are different ways that schools go about giving the tasks. The summer assignments could either be teacher-designed or student-designed. Both of these techniques prove to work on the students, but the teacher-designed assignments seem to be more helpful compared to student-designed. A few of the many important reasons why teacher-designed projects are best at continuing the learning process are the students are able to get the correct materials directly from the teacher and students are challenged with the work they are given.

During the summer, if children are given teacher-designed assignments, they will be given the correct materials from the teachers instead of them guessing what will be learned when returning to school. Summer assignments are designed to prepare students for their future classes. Without the teacher giving their future students what they will be learning, it is nearly impossible for the children to know how to prepare themselves for their class. If a student, for example, is taking a math class in the future that has trigonometry in the curriculum, how would they know to learn trig without any teacher reference. With the help of teachers, students are more likely to do better in the class because they know what they are going to face once they come back from summer break. Preparation is the most important aspect when students are going back to school. Along with giving the students correct materials, teacher-designed summer assignments give the kids an opportunity to challenge themselves.

Student-designed assignments, unlike teacher-designed, allow the students to be challenged and improve their learning skills over break. When children assign themselves their own work, they tend to choose easier assignments because the work load seems too much for them to handle. For example, if a child has the ability to choose what to write their essay about, they will most likely choose something easier which affects them improving their learning abilities. With teachers designing the assignments it is guaranteed that the students will be challenged since students have no control over what they have to do. This will benefit the students in the future when it comes to the material they are learning because their learning ability in that subject improved over the break. This will make the students better off in the long run even though they could potentially have a more difficult time completing the assignment. If students had the ability to design their own summer assignments, they would choose tasks that would not improve themselves but instead choose one that is easier so it's completed faster with less work. This does not benefit the student but, unfortunately, hurts them. This is because children will not be as prepared in the class which could ultimately lead to a bad start of the new school year.

Although teacher-designed assignments are very helpful, student-designed work can carry less stress for the student during their break and make it more relaxing for them to complete. Usually when kids get their summer assignments from their teachers, it creates more stress for them when they are supposed to be relaxing from the long months of school. With having the students prepare their own tasks, they are able to pace themselves throughout the summer with less worry on their back compared to teacher-designed assignments. For example, if a student has the ability to create their own science assignment, they can review what they already know along with some new material on the subject which could ultimately bring down the amount of stress put on the student to complete the assignment. This makes their summer vacation more enjoyable along with them having the ability to continue learning without teachers having to assign them projects. Students, when teacher assign them their work, tend to get more stressed of the fact that they have to get it done in order to get a good grade. Student-designed work gives them the opportunity to learn on their own which could potentially benefit them better than being assigned something from the teacher.

Both of these methods are great when it comes to students continuing their learning throughout the summer, but teacher-designed assignments guarantee success when it comes to improvement is the children's learning ability. Although student-designed work does limit the amount of stress put on the student, there is no way to know that the work they assign themselves will benefit them when they return to school. When teachers design the assignments, students are given the correct materials directly from the source and the students have a better opportunity to be challenged; both reasons will help their grades when they go back to school. Summer assignments are really important for preparing students for the future, so giving them the best path for success can be achieved by teacher designing the work.