For the majority of students in the US, school work is a year round task. Teachers have started to assign "summer assignments" that must be completed before entry into the class the following school year. By working on and completing these assignments, students are able to keep their brain active over the break. This is also a small preview into the curriculum of the class and it also can allow a student to have an outlook on their teacher's style and format of teaching. By having these "summer assignments" teacher-designed, students are able to learn the required base material of the class and will be able to succeed in the course that is being taken.

With the professor of the course creating the assignment or project, it will make it possible for each student to complete the same amount of work and learn the same material. These strict ideas that the professor of a class is trying to communicate to their students is work that is needed to be completed so that you will be able to have a basis for the curriculum. Over the summer, before I was taking an advanced placement course, I was required to complete a packet reviewing the material that was needed to understand what was going to be educated in the class. If I had not finished this packet, I would have been completely lost during the economics seminar we had to participate in during the first week of the course. This "summer packet" was designed by the teacher and because of this, all of the students who completed this packet were fully aware of the basis of the advanced placement economics class.

Review guides and summer assignments designed by the professor of a course are much more beneficial than student-designed versions. Having the teacher create this work makes it so a student is learning the exact material that is going to be on an assessment because the teacher makes the assignment based off of a test or diagnostic. Teacher-designed summer projects are often times needed because there is not always time for a professor to teach the given curriculum in a school year. But, summer assignments are not always beneficial. Some students benefit off of vocal learning much more than visual. If the professor of a class were to just take about two to three classes just to explain the material that would otherwise be gone over whilst completing a summer assignment, then surely students would get a better understanding of the material at hand.

If students were given the opportunity to design their own summer project, it would allow for each student to have the freedom of learning what most interests them about the course.This freedom can be a blessing and a curse, because it is inevitable that many would look at this as an opportunity to complete the least amount of work possible. This year, SCHOOL_NAME is trying to limit teachers from giving at home assessments that are worth a grade point percentage. This resulted in the majority of homework assignments being non-graded. Many students are looking at this as a way to get out of doing work, but this will always come back to hurt them in the future. A student who completes all of the work assigned, regardless of if it is graded or not, has a much higher chance of doing well in the class compared to a student who only does the required amount of work.

The overall reasoning for summer assignments is for students to keep their head in a "school mindset". With them being teacher-designed, it allows each and every student the chance to learn the basis of the subject that they are about to be taught. Student-designed summer projects will always end up with students completing the minimum amount of work possible. Each student deserves a chance to get a jump start into the curriculum and by having this "jump-start" it allows for students to get the most out of a class.