Have you ever had a summer assignment that was challenging, an assignment that you were not sure if you could complete?

I most certainly have, in the summer leading up to AP World history, I was assigned a packet to complete with a due date of two weeks into the school year.

Many people weren't able to start that project until close to the due date due to the confusion and misinformation surrounding the project.

Since so many people were misinformed, many had to work a lot of hours to catch up.

Some people weren't able to access the resources needed to do the assignment, so they couldn't even do it if they wanted to.

That is why summer assignments should be designed by the students, so this can all be avoided.

If summer assignments were student designed then the students would be able to design the assignments around their own limitations and time constraints in the summer, the students would know if it were something that all are capable of, and they would know if they would be able to do the assignment without teacher assistance.

Some people might say that the assignments should be teacher designed because the teachers know the content the best.

While it is true that the teachers know the content the best, they might not really know if it is something the students are capable of yet.

The teacher creating the summer assignment might not know how much the student has learned in the previous year so there is a chance that the summer assignment is too difficult for some.

Many times summer assignments are both made to review previous content and introduce new content the students will need when coming back to school.

Students can be left behind if the teacher made assignment is too difficult for the students.

Students know the constraints and limitations of their summer the best, so they would know how to design the summer assignment around this.

Sometimes a project is too big or the student does not have the necessary resources to do the project.

If students don't have the correct resources or the right amount of time then they can't do the project.

Some students may be traveling to somewhere without internet so if the project assigned requires an internet connection then the student without internet cannot do the project.

If the project is more toward the creative side of things then maybe the student doesn't have the resources to make it look pretty and nice.

Students know if they are capable of doing the project.

They know what they learned the previous year and if they can do the summer assignment using that knowledge from that previous year.

They know if they can access the correct resources they need in order to do the assignment.

When my history assignment was given to me some people unfortunately lost the packet needed to do the assignment.

They couldn't get a new packet until they were back in school with very little time left to do the project.

Having the students design the project with situations like these in mind would greatly improve the number of people who turned in the assignments on time.

Students know if they are able to do it without the assistance of a teacher or another knowledgeable person to help them.

If a student needs to ask a teacher a question the student can't during the summer and will have to wait for the new school year to start back up again.

Sure they might have some form of old notes to help or clarify things but many kids either lose those notes or forget about them so those kids wouldn't be able to use that as a form of help.

The new assignment needs to build off of students knowledge in a meaningful and attainable way, that all students will be able to understand.

Students should be able to complete assignments given to them for the summer.

Sometimes teacher designed assignments can be over expecting of the students.

The student designed assignments would be designed with limitations, capability of the students, and previous knowledge of the students in mind guaranteeing that every student will be able to complete the assignment within the given time frame and get a great grade on it too.