As I heard my score on the first quiz I took in my AP US History class, I remember the happiness I felt and how grateful I was to have had such a beneficial and informative reading project over the summer. Without my teacher's aid to learn the information, I would have not understood the material as clearly as I did and achieve an above average score on the first quiz. Although some may believe otherwise, summer projects assuring continued learning during break should be teacher designed because the teacher knows what material the student needs to understand to succeed and because students may not challenge themselves as much as they need to gain any new knowledge.

Teacher designed projects make it easier for students to know what information is necessary for the course, and allow them to be more successful when it comes to assessments. For example, my AP US History teacher Dr. Generic_Name gave all of his students a reading guide and textbook to learn about the course over the summer. While doing the packet he gave his students, we all attained so much information, which heavily benefited the students when we started doing our daily quizzes. Through his reading guides, I learned how to properly take notes on the information so I could succeed when taking quizzes or tests, and I can still use what I learned to prepare for his assignments every day. Another example is my World History 1 teacher, Mrs. Generic_Name, who would have us complete small projects before every test to make sure we could comprehend and apply the material we were learning. Before each test, she would host review sessions after school where we could work on our small projects and receive help. Her teacher designed projects allowed us to succeed and made her a reliable and helpful teacher.

Summer projects designed by teachers also combat student laziness for those who do not want to challenge themselves to learn anything new on their own. For example, the summer before sophomore year, all the students in my English class were assigned a project where they had to read a book and had to complete an assignment of their choice, which could have been designing artwork, writing a review, and several other options. While this project did benefit many of the students who completed the project correctly, some students decided to choose an assignment for a book they had already read, and did not learn anything new from the experience. If the teacher had been less lenient about the project and required students to read a certain book, more students would have challenged themselves and learned something beneficial for the course. Another example is my friend Generic_Name, she had a student designed project over the summer for her Pre-calculus class, and she thought that she did not need to make a challenging project because she knew that she would learn the material when the class actually started. However, when she got to the class she realized that the teacher skipped over that material because they were supposed to have learned it over the summer. If her teacher had designed the project, she would have understood what she was supposed to learn, and made sure she was prepared for the first day of class.

Some may disagree that teachers should design summer projects because they believe students should seek out information on their own and should not just be given answers to help them in the class. However, this reasoning is flawed due to the fact that students who receive teacher aid, like reading and study guides, when learning the material tend to have more success on assessments, and form better relationships with the teacher. For example, my friend Generic_Name had a student designed project for her French class over the summer. While doing the project, she was often confused about the requirements and what she was supposed to be learning, and when she was finally in the class once the school year started, she realized she had done most of the project in a way different than what was supposed to be done. Not only did she receive a poor grade on the project, she had a negative first encounter with her teacher, which made her afraid to talk to her and get help for things in the future. Others may also disagree that teachers should not design summer projects because it limits student creativity, and prevents them from enjoying learning about things that interest them. While teacher designed projects may not seem as enjoyable to ones students design on their own, teacher deigned projects are more reliable for allowing students to learn as much as they can, and will prevent students from just relearning something or ignoring important details about a course. As another example, in my Biology class we had to do an independent research project on a topic of our choice. However, one of the people in my class decided to submit an old project one of their siblings had done to avoid doing any work. The student was caught and given a zero on the project, but if the teacher had given specific topics and made more requirements to prevent cheating, the student probably would have done the research like they were supposed to, and learn a lot of new information which would help them in the course as well.

In the past, students who were allowed to design their own projects led to misinformation and confusion about the class they were taking. This then led to lower than average grades and strain between students and their teachers. Presently, students receive a mix of student and teacher designed projects, but teacher designed projects have shown repeatedly to be more successful in student understanding of the material and are more efficient at providing guidelines for students to meet the standards required of them. In the future, teachers should give more projects they have designed so students have the capability to understand what is expected of them and are aware of how to be successful in their classes.