Some schools require students to complete summer assignments to make sure that they continue learning over the long summer break. There has been some debate on whether or not these assignments should be designed by students, or designed by teachers. Summer assignments should be designed by teachers because; teachers can create assignments specifically tailored to their class, teachers can use summer assignments to help students with subjects that have been historically struggled with, and most of the students are not familiar enough with the material to create an assignment by themselves.

The first reason reason why teachers should design their own summer assignment is that the teacher can create an assignment that is specifically tailored for their class. A teacher knows both what material the students will be learning and how they will go about learning it. A teacher could use this knowledge to create an assignment that creates prior learning in an area that they will not cover as much. This will make sure that the students have a greater understanding of a topic without needing to take valuable class time to learn it. An example of an assignment like this would be a required reading. Students would be required to read a book about a topic selected by the teacher and complete an assignment to demonstrate understanding of the text. The teacher's contact information would be made available to the students so that any important questions could be answered. With an assignment like this, the students are functionally teaching themselves over the summer. A teacher could also use this assignment to create interest in the class. A teacher could compile all of the topics that students typically find interesting into a sort of class preview that will make students more curious about the class. This curiosity could create a better work environment and allow students to learn even more over the year.

The second reason why teachers should design their own summer assignments is because they can use summer assignments to help students with subjects that have been historically struggled with. Teachers are aware of which subjects students generally struggle with, and can use that information to help future students. Teachers can use the summer assignment for this by creating prior knowledge about the more difficult subjects. If the students are already somewhat familiar with the material, it will take less class time to teach it. This leaves more time to answer individual questions and help students understand the specific parts that the class is struggling with. An example of how a teacher could do this is by assigning a research paper. If the students are free to do their own research, they will develop an interest in the topic over the course of the writing. The students will be essentially teaching an entire difficult subject to themselves. The students could then present their essay to the class to show their individual findings. The class will teach each other about their own findings until every individual is competent in the subject. The teacher's contact information should be made available so that any questions that come up can be answered, but the students should rely mostly on other credible sources for their information.

The final reason why teachers should create their own summer assignments is because students are not familiar enough with the material to create assignments for themselves. All the information that students usually have about a class before they take it is the title of the class, and a brief description of the material. The students know almost nothing going into a class while teachers have experience teaching the subject and know how to best introduce it to students. There can be no argument for students creating their own assignments because they are simply not knowledgeable enough to design a focused and useful assignment. If students were to create their own assignments, there would be several problems. One main issue is that the students' projects would not be focused on the acutal course, but on what they thought the couse was loosly about. Students do not know much going into a class and can not possibly know enough about the class to create a well designed assignment that will effectively introduce them to the material. Another issue is that students will try to make it easier on themselves. Students do not always have the best work ethics ,especially over the summer. If given the choice, they will always choose an easier rout even if it means sacrificing a part of their education. If students are allowed to create their own assignments, they will most likely create something that is not challenging at all and therefor not useful. If a summer assignment is not neither challenging nor introducing new material, it is functionally useless. The final issue is the fact that teachers will have no way to accurately grade an entirely student created project. The teacher has no way of judging quality if the details of the assignment are unclear. If each individual comes in with a different assignment, the teacher will have no choice but to hand out arbitrary grades based on nothing at all. A project without a rubric is impossible to grade.

There aresome schools that require students to complete assignments over their summer break. The objective of these assignments is to ensure that the students continue to learn over the long summer break. There has been debate about whether or not these summer assignments should be designed by teachers or by students. The summer assignments should be designed by teachers for a multitude of reasons including; teachers can create assignments specifically tailored to their class, teachers can use summer assignments to help students with subjects that have been historically struggled with, and most of the students are not familiar enough with the material to create an assignment by themselves.