Summer enrichment gives students a way to continue practicing critical thinking and researching during the long break. It is important that the enrichment is relevant and challenging to the students. Summer projects should be teacher-designed rather than student-designed to ensure that the projects are relevant to next year's courses, reflective of the past year's courses, and challenging for the students.

Part of the value of summer enrichment is shown in how it prepares the students for the next year of learning. It is important that summer projects provide students with a look into topics that will be covered when they return to school. If summer projects are designed by teachers, then they can include thought-provoking questions and assignments that introduce the students to their courses. For my history class this year I had to complete a summer assignment that allowed me to look into the subjects we covered at the beginning of this year. I went into the course with a better understanding of the material and preparedness for the rest of the year. The teacher-designed summer enrichment I completed helped to give me a strong foundation for my class. My teacher was able to take the main ideas of the class and introduce them to me over the summer break. Teacher-designed summer enrichment would provide students with a much stronger basis of the course then student-designed enrichment.

There is also value in summer enrichment's ability to help students recall the information they learned in the past year and use it to understand and build upon next year's material. teachers can use the material that students have already learned and encourage them to apply it to their future learning. Teachers are knowledgeable of the courses and can give students projects and assignments that bring back information and topics that students may have forgotten throughout the year. Student-designed projects would not be able to use the past courses topics and points of interest as well as teacher-designed projects would. I feel more prepared for the next year when my teachers give me reflective projects that encourage me to recall what I've learned and continue to apply it in my work.

It is also important that summer projects challenge students and encourage critical thinking and research. Teachers will be able to make sure students are being given critical and thought-provoking questions. Teachers will also be able to encourage analyzing and researching that enriches the students over the break. When students lead projects they may fall short of what is expected of them next school year. Students may also have trouble pushing themselves to challenge their minds. I have often seen student-led projects that are surface level and lazily-designed. Teacher-led projects would be able to ensure challenging questions and assignments and promote critical-thinking.

Teacher-designed summer projects would be more effective in introducing students to next year's courses, as well as in reflecting over the past year's courses. Teachers would also be able to challenge their students and encourage critical-thinking over summer break in ways that students may not push themselves to do. Summer projects should be teacher-designed to ensure students are learning and understanding information to the best of their ability.